32 DOMESTIC FOWL. 



skin white ; flesh good ; eggs abundant ; successful rearers of 

 chickens. I would recommend them as mothers. 

 The next I shall endeavour to describe is 



THE RUMPKIN, OR TAIL-LESS FOWL, 



Which is about the usual size of our common poultry, but whether 

 an original and distinct species, or an accidental variety, is not 

 handed down to us from any of the early writers. So long as I 

 have been an observer of poultry, I have occasionally met a few of 

 them, and for years have scarcely been without some specimens. 

 They are not very scarce, nor abundant nearly on the same par 

 with the Frizzled Fowl ; and although objected to by some, I should 

 be sorry to hear of their becoming extinct, lest, as with the White 

 Polish, with black top-knot, their existence become doubtful. 

 They do not make an unpleasant appearance precisely the same 

 as the Partridge, Grouse, or Ptarmigan, being destitute of what 

 the ladies call the Pope's nose. They are said to be from Ceylon ; 

 others give them a different locality. All the specimens passing 

 through my hands were bred here. The cock weighs 6 Ibs., and 

 stands 19 inches high; the hen 5 Ibs., and stands 17 inches high. 

 The plumage varies in colour ; the comb large, serrated, and erect, 

 free from top-knot ; large wattles ; ear-lobes white, well furnished 

 with hackles, on neck and saddle ; perfectly tail-less ; legs white ; 

 skin white ; flesh white and juicy ; eggs abundant ; chickens easily 

 reared. Those in my possession are good specimens of poultry, 

 as to size, plumage, or markings. 1 consider them rather a su- 

 perior description of fowl, and the hen -wives who mutilate their 

 stock, both cocks and hens, by depriving them of their tail, cannot 

 object to the rumpkins, as they are periectly unencumbered by 

 that appendage. 



THE SILK FOWL, 



Of which there is a large and small variety the large of many 

 colours, the small usually white. I have had the small, white, for 

 many years, which were imported from Sumatra, and have most 

 successfully hatched out, by them, gold, silver, white, pied, and 

 brown Pheasants, for which nothing can be better adapted, than 

 their fine downy, silken, or woolly coat, and they are most careful 

 nursers; for this they are invaluable. Though the plumage is 

 white, the skin is black. Their flesh is coarse and bad, and of 

 unpleasant flavour. Their bones, though ever so over-dressed, 



