DOMESTIC FOWL. 17 



There is another variety of poultry with five toes 



THE WHITE DORKING, 



A very handsome little bird, purely white, but better calculated 

 for ornamental than useful purposes, being to the coloured Dork- 

 ing, as the Bantam is to the ordinary fowl, and sent to market as 

 a substitute for chickens ; they are furnished, as in the large 

 variety, with the supplementary toe, but can bear no compari- 

 son, as to value, in any respect; the cock's weight is about 

 4 Ibs., and the hen's about 3 Ibs. ; the cock stands about 15 

 inches high, and the hen about 13 inches; the plumage inva- 

 riably white ; the comb occasionally, as in the large variety, 

 single, or rosed, free from top-knot; fair proportioned wattles, 

 the hackles white, the tail plumed, legs white, flesh delicate and 

 chickeny, eggs small, chickens handsome, but delicate. I can 

 only recommend them for the fancy ; they look beautiful on a 

 lawn. 



THE OLD SUSSEX, OB KENT FOWL, 



Is so nearly allied to the Dorking as to be almost impossible to 

 separate them ; they may be called identical, as it frequently 

 happens that, in the same clutch, some of the birds have five toes, 

 while others have but four ; those with the five toes being denomi- 

 nated, by the breeders, Dorking, and they designate those with only 

 four toes, the old Sussex. Many fanciers prefer the old Sussex to 

 the Dorking, considering the additional toe as rather a deformity, 

 and when much projecting, liable to accident. They are of all 

 the various colours of the Dorking ; the description of that bird 

 may, in every particular, be applied to them. They require, as 

 in the Dorking and other fowl, fresh blood introduced, or they 

 become degenerate. 



THE SHAKEBAG, 



Or Duke of Leed's fowl, said by Mowbray to be extinct, should 

 take its place after the Dorking and Sussex, being the next in size ; 

 but it would be tedious and unnecessary to take up the reader's 

 time, by describing a fowl which he may never have an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing ; I shall only speak of the circumstance from 

 which it derived its name. His grace of Leeds, being an enthu- 

 siastic cocker, was in the habit of challenging his cocks, being 



