90 CALIFORNIA POULTRY PRACTICE 



stead of black legs, beak, etc. There are some very fine specimens of 

 both varieties in California. 



White Faced Black Spanish. This is a very old breed and a good 

 one. They lay extra large eggs, as large if not larger than Min- 

 orcas. Their chief attraction is the large white cravat, or face, as it 

 is termed. In a dry climate like ours the white faced black Spanish 

 fowl ought to be at its best, but some way very few specimens are 

 exhibited, even at the larger shows. It appears to be only a fancier's 

 fowl in this State, but in England years ago they were kept for their 

 great laying qualities. 



Blue Andalusians. The Andalusian is another of the class of 

 white egg layers, and it is a good layer, too. It also has the distinc- 

 tion of dressing in the National colors. It is a smaller fowl than the 

 Minorca but of the same type. It lays a white egg of good size and 

 the fowl is about the same size as the standard set for Leghorns. 

 Cock 6 pounds, cockerel 5, hen 5 and pullet 4 pounds. They are too 

 small to rank very high as table poultry, not common enough to take 

 their place on the utility egg farm, but for the small farm or the fan- 

 cier they are a good fowl. 



Anconas. These birds have been getting into favor as an egg 

 breed very much of late, and are certainly being called for in numbers. 

 Some of their admirers claim that eventually they will sweep this 

 Coast and toe the commercial egg fowl. They have no weight clause 

 in the Standard, but are supposed to be about as large as a good sized 

 Leghorn. They are rated as good layers of large white eggs; the 

 quality of meat not so good as the Leghorn. Disqualifications are, 

 red in earjobes covering more than one-half the surface; red in any 

 part of plumage; shanks other than yellow or mottled with black. 



The claim is often made for all these small breeds that they are 

 non-sitters, but like a great many other claims it is not strictly true. 

 Some of these non-sitters are sitters of the most inveterate kind, and 

 even when given eggs they will leave them and go and sit on an empty 

 nest. Some, on the other hand, do sit and make good mothers; how- 

 ever, it only goes to show that whether a hen sits or not, nature in- 

 tended her to take a rest somewhere in her busy season, and if hens 

 do not sit they take the rest anyway. 



