SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORN .\ND HOUD.VN. 



19 



couutrj'. This may have been cro.ssed with ' ' the old crested race of Caux. "* 

 The Houdan may be regarded as one of the fuudanieutal types. 



T.'iBI.E OF CHAR.\CTERISTICS. 



DISCUSSION OF CHARACTERISTICS. 



1. General Plumage Color. — In the Leghorn this is typically white, 

 and the most highly selected birds are without trace of black specks or 

 yellowish lacing. The yellow lacing is hard to get rid of. The Houdan 

 color consists typically of black feathers occasionally 

 tipped with white (fig. 16). 



2. Color of Upper Mandible. — The clear yellow 

 of the mandible of the white Leghorn is part of the 

 general pigmentation of the .skin. Much yellow pig- 

 ment is deposited over the body. It shows prominently 

 in the tarsal scutes. The Houdan mandible is clear 

 black. 



3. Nostrils. — -The high nostrils of the Houdan 

 (fig. 12) are like those of the Polish fowl (page 7). 



4. Comb. — The comb of the Houdan in America is 

 the so-called V-comb. It differs from the Polish comb 

 (page 7) in that the two horns arise from the sides of 

 a median swelling (Fig. B). In England the Houdan 

 is cultivated with a leaf comb consisting of two broad, 

 flat expansions of the horns arising from a median 



ridge like ' ' a butterfly with open wings. " t It thus resembles the posterior 

 part of a Y-comb (fig. 8). The single comb of the Leghorn is very large 

 and lops in the female to the right or left side of the head. 



"Petersen, C. E., 1905, p. 961, quoting P. Megnin : "El^vage et engraissement des 

 volailles." 



fHurst, C. C, 1905, p. 132. 



ifl. B. ~ Dorsal view of 

 beak of Houdan g&<f 

 showing pail of clublike 

 papillae, c, that represent 

 the v-comh, c. /., cul- 

 niiiial fold. 



