16 DOMESTIC FOWL. 



7 Ibs. weight ? He is a breeder and promoter of Dorking, on his 

 Irish estate, for his own use, and the benefit of his tenants. I 

 have been favoured with young birds, from his stock, of six months 

 old, of 8 Ibs. weight, although the Dorking does not come to full 

 growth till two years old. My late lamented friend, Charles 

 Steel Bompass, Esq., secretary to the same society, has put me 

 in the way of procuring the finest Dorking in Great Britain. The 

 foregoing bird is from the stock, procured through him. 



I have no doubt but these facts will furnish our learned author 

 with the materials for another facetious Yankee story; and I 

 assure him that no persons can enjoy a joke with more gusto than 

 my countrymen, in whatever grade of life. 



The hens are from 7 to 9 Ibs., they stand low on the legs ; the 

 cock about 22 inches, and the hens about 20 inches, with short, 

 round, plump body, wide on the breast and back, with abundance 

 of white and juicy flesh; nothing to surpass them as table fowl ; 

 the plumage gray or speckled, or striped, and sometimes red ; the 

 cock's comb in some birds large, serrated, and erect; in others 

 large and rose- shaped ; wattles large, should be free from top- 

 knot; hackles vary according to colour; tail presenting the 

 plume, if in good feather ; legs short, white or blue ; feet with 

 the distinctive markings of an additional toe ; eggs abundant, but 

 not large according to the size of the bird; chickens easily reared, 

 and come to perfection sooner than any other poultry. They 

 have taken their name from a town in Surrey, in which they 

 were abundant, but from the demand, have become scarce, and it 

 is now difficult to procure good specimens from that locality. 

 The early writers on poultry describe "a large breed of fowl, with 

 five toes, as good layers and sitters," which may have been the 

 progenitors of our modern Dorking. An amateur breeder of the 

 five- toed fowl, assures me he brought them from Normandy, 

 where he says they were to be had, previous to their appearance 

 in Surrey. There cannot be any fowl better calculated to add to 

 the profits of the farm-yard, from their abundance of flesh and 

 small offal; they are hardy, naturally climatized, and are, as 

 their progenitors are described, "good layers and sitters," but 

 heavy on the nest. Breeders will find it necessary to introduce, 

 occasionally, fresh blood into their stock of Dorking, or indeed of 

 any other fowl, otherwise they become unhealthy, and degenerate 

 into a dwarfish size ; and if you expect productive eggs, do not 

 give more than four or five hens to a cock. These are the fowl 

 usually emasculated in England. 



