3.20 Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier on Modern 



and the wattles, like the comb, are reduced to a minimum and 

 replaced by feathers. All the Polish breeds are non-sitters. 

 I have given figures of a male and female of two different 

 varieties in order to call attention to the fact that the fea- 

 thers of the crest differ in the two sexes, in both, however, 

 taking the form of the tail-coverts ; so that they are lanceo- 

 late in the males and rounded in the females. 



The rudimentary comb in the Polish breeds is crescentic 

 or two-horned, and is generally developed in an inverse ratio 

 to the feathered crest ; it is even possible to establish breeds 

 allied to the Polish retaining the deformed nasal bones, but 

 with enlarged combs and abortive crests. Several such breeds 

 exist in France, where crossing has been largely employed to 

 secure good birds for the table. In the La Fleche cock 

 (fig. 13, p. 319) the crescentic comb is fully developed in con- 

 junction with the peculiar deficiency of the nasal bones, 

 while the crest is extremely rudimentary and often absent. 

 In the breeds known in France as Gueldres and Bredas, the 

 combs and crests are both absent, and the only resemblance 

 between these birds and the Polish breeds, from which they 

 were apparently derived, is in the peculiar formation of the 

 nostrils and the nasal bones ; whereas in the Creve-cceurs and 

 Houdans, breeds that have been introduced into this country 

 since the time of Darwin's work on Variation, both the crest 

 and comb are present. 



The plastic character of these varieties may be inferred 

 from the fact (which I have repeatedly proved) that in inter- 

 breeding half-bred Polish, in three generations the crest can 

 either be entirely got rid of or restored to its full size by 

 careful selection of the birds bred from. 



Polish or crested fowls have been so long favourites with 

 amateurs that numerous sub- varieties, varying as to colours 

 &c, exist. In addition to the gold- and silver-spangled, 

 there are purely white Polish, others entirely black, and some 

 are Cuckoo-feathered. One of the most interesting, as illus- 

 trating a fact in variation well known to all raisers of new 

 breeds, is the buff or Chamois Polish. In this the feathers 

 are reddish buff, each one being tipped or spangled with 



