THE LEGHORNS 



19 



seen a five-toed bird amongst our stock. To those who 

 know the remarkable way in which the merest dash of 

 alien blood will assuredly display itself— how the char- 

 acteristic points of the breed from which such a drop is 

 taken, will at times appear— the reason will be all-suf- 

 ficient justification for our statement that the production 

 of Duckwings by Mr. Terrot and Mr. Payne was con- 

 ducted on very dissimilar lines. 



As to the material used by Mr. Payne, we are to 

 some extent compelled to be suppositious, for though 

 very clearly and in detail described are the stages of the 

 Pyle's evolution, he has never taken the "fancy" mto his 

 confidence with regard to Duckwings, and his later letters 

 on the "Golden" and "Silver" controversy have only 

 served to darken the student's path. We have statements 

 from three different sources which aid us not a little in 

 forming our own conclusions: — 



■ (1) That Pyle-bred sports (pullets) of a slatey or 

 Andalusian body color, with underparts ashen gray, were 

 used. 



(2) That Phoenix fowls (or Shinowarataos) belong 

 to the Game class, having all the various Game col---" '" 

 eluding Duckwing, the female of the latter 

 being a salmon-breasted greyfowl. 



(3) Duckwing Leghorns combine the 

 blood of nearly all the other varieties. The 

 best material to use in breeding them is to 

 select a few mis-marked pullets that occasion- 

 ally appear when breeding for Pyles, and breed 

 with a brown cock. 



Add to the above statements that Mr. 

 Payne did not produce Duckwings until having 

 visited Belgium on show business, he espied 

 some Phoenix fowl; that he purchased some of 

 the latter and brought them to his own yards 

 —and the matter lies in a nutshell. We have 

 come to the conclusion that Mr. Payne tried 

 to produce Duckwings from the material men- 

 tioned in No. 3 above; but what of the cock- 

 erels from such a mating? Here was a diffi- 

 culty which the "Phoenix" solved; and, though 

 early cockerels were more silvern than golden, 

 they were passable Duckwings. It has been 

 said that "Silvers" were the first to appear. We 

 give an extract from an article by Mr. Payne 

 which will tend to show that Goldens were 

 quite an afterthought: "On part of the cock- -''. 



erels the beautiful black breast has become 

 quite a feature. This I attribute to not insist- 

 ing on a pure silvery top color. Personally I 

 prefer a golden tinge, as it is less aff^ected by 

 the sun, and to my mind, sets the bird ofif better." 



Later Mr. Payne has publicly stated that Silver 

 Duckwings were produced from very different material to 

 that used for Golden Duckwings, and existed before the 

 latter. 



However, we have got thus far, that they were orig- 

 inated by Mr. Terrot, and that Mr. Payne succeeded in 

 breeding and showing birds of both sexes that have been 

 reproduced. It is with the arrival of Mr. Huison on the 

 scenes that the Duckwing Leghorn begins to evolve itself 

 from "mongrelism" to become a typical bird, breeding al- 

 most perfectly true. Mr. Huison, on the one hand, and 

 Mr. Gerahty. on the other, have spared neither expense 

 nor trouble in bringing the Duckwing Leghorn to the high 

 state of perfection it has now attained; and without their 

 support the "originators" would have had little reason to 

 boast of their production. 



Other Variety' Leghorns, the Silver Duckwing hen and 

 pullets were the only features worth mentioning. They 

 were excellent in shape and color, the hen showing more 

 style than any other Leghorn in the Show." 



The following year at New York Mr. Hanchett and 

 Mr. Fiske exhibited Duckwing Leghorns, the honors 

 being about equally divided between them. That the new 

 variety showed decided improvement in quality, the fol- 

 lowing comments in the "American Fancier" indicate; 



Silver Duckwing Leghorns made an interesting ex- 

 hibit, the females being particularly good in style and 

 color. We also noted one very promising cockerel of this 

 variety, the hackle and saddle feathers showing some 

 striping, and the sooner Dark Brahma hackle and saddle 

 striping are cultivated on Duckwing Leghorns, the bet- 

 ter. 



Mr. Fiske was the only exhibitor of Duckwing Leg- 

 horns for several years after that, but no real interest was 



First Exhibited in America 



1894 



Silver Duckwing Leghorns made their appearance in 

 America in the beginning of the nineties, J. L. Hanchett, 

 Westfield, Mass., making an exhibit at the Madison 

 Square Garden, New York, February, 1894, our comments 

 on the class in the "American Fancier" being as follows: 

 "Duckwing Leghorns showed up well, especially the pen 

 and a few of the pullets in the open class. This variety 

 deserves attention, for it can be made a very handsome 

 one." In 1895, at the New York Show, J. W. Fiske, Pas- 

 saic, N. J., exhibited a fine string of Silver Duckwing Leg- 

 horns, our comments on these at the time being: "In '.\ny 



ROSE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS, 1S97. 



taken in the new variety until 1906 and 1907, when fine 



classes were penned at the Madison Square Garden, E. G. 



Wyckoft', Exmoor Farms and Thomas Peer being the 



exhibitors. But in the past two years very few Silver 



Duckwing Leghorns have been exhibited at the winter 



shows. 



Origin of Rose Comb Brown, White and Buff Leghorns 



These three varieties differ only in the shape of the 

 comb, from the single-combed varieties, from which they 

 are commonly supposed to have descended, color and 

 shape corresponding in all sections in both. The Browns 

 and Whites have long been known and bred, being among 

 the Standard varieties as far back as 1888. The Buffs were 

 admitted to the Standard in 1878. All three are of Amer- 

 ican manufacture, no convenient skipper of some vessel 

 being credited with bringing them over from sunny Italy 

 to the United States. 



The origin of these rose comb varieties is not an 

 "open book." Supposition and imagination played im- 

 portant parts in the evolution of at least one of the frio, 

 the Browns. T. F. McGrew, who has collected a valu- 

 able and large file of clippings relating to the early his- 

 tory of our domesticated races of poultry, kindly fur- 

 nishes us with the following information relating to Rose 

 Comb Browns: 



