154 PROFITS IK POULTRY. 



THE BLACK SPANISH TOWL. 



Doubtless there exists no breed of thoroughbred fowls 

 in any country, except the Game, which can lay claim to 

 priority of origin or to such an unbroken line of pure 

 lineage as the Black Spanish. Nearly two thousand 

 years ago Columella wrote about them; they were then 

 indigenous to Spain, and not generally known in the 

 Roman Empire. Faint traces of their origin to the 

 Phoanician colony of Carthage, through the doubtful 

 media of Celtic poetry, are not sufficiently reliable of 

 themselves to substantiate the claim. 



The Black Spanish is possibly the fourth in the order 

 of Gallinae, or, in other words, the fourth distinct variety 

 of the Gallus batMva. Time has effected but little 

 change in them during those years of close breeding. 

 The same vital element, the same stamina, and the same 

 power of reproducing their like in plumage, contour, 

 symmetry, carriage, and facial markings are as character- 

 istic of the breed to-day as they were of them in past cen- 

 turies. Some writers assert several varieties of the Black 

 Spanish, as the Minorca, Red-faced, Black, the White, 

 the Blue, Andalusian, and the Gray or Mottled Ancona, 

 Although each of these varieties was produced by the 

 amalgamation of the Black Spanish with other provin- 

 cial breeds, yet, strictly speaking, each is definitely classed 

 by the best-informed Spanish breeders as distinct varie- 

 ties, inasmuch as they belong to the Mediterranean 

 islands and provinces of Spain. Their resemblance to 

 the Spanish is indeed close. Affinity no doubt exists; 

 but nowadays, when skillful discriminations, careful 

 selections, and thorough breeding produce those nice 

 and fine points not found in the original congenitors, 

 the progeny in time assumes distinctive features, plum- 

 age, and peculiar characteristics, so as to be considered a 



