THE DORKING FOWL. 195 



too heavy and clumsy to rear the Chicks of any smaller and 

 more delicate bird than themselves. Pheasants, Partridges, 

 Bantams, Guinea Fowl, are trampled under foot and crushed, if 

 in the least weakly. The Hen, in her affectionate industry in 

 scratching for grubs, kicks her lesser nurslings right and left, 

 and leaves them sprawling on their backs. Before they are a 

 month old, half of them will be muddled to death with this 

 rough kindness. In spite of these drawbacks, the Dorkings 

 are still in high favour; but a cross is found to be more profit- 

 able than the true breed. A showy, energetic Game-cock, with 

 Dorking Hens, produces Chickens in size and beauty little infe- 

 rior to their maternal parentage, and much more robust. 

 Everybody knows their peculiarity in having a supernumerary 

 toe on each foot. This characteristic almost always disappears 

 with the first cross, but it is a point which can very well be 

 spared without much disadvantage. In other respects, the ap- , 

 pearance of the newly-hatched Chicks is scarcely altered. The 

 eggs of the Dorking Hens are large, pure white, very much 

 rounded, and nearly equal in size at each end. The Chicks 

 are brownish -yellow, with a broad brown stripe down the mid- 

 dle of the back, and a narrower one on each side; feet and 

 legs yellow. ' 



Of this breed Mr. Alfred Whitaker thus expresses his opin- 

 ion : " I agree with you fully as to the usefulness of this de- 

 scription of Poultry, but I do not view them exactly through 

 the same medium as to their beauty. Compared with the 

 Pheasant-Malays, they are short-necked, and there is no arch 

 or crest to the neck. Their colours vary from a streaked grey 

 to a mottled or spotted brown and white. A neighbour here 

 has some of the finest I ever saw; the Cocks with very full 

 double combs, and the Hens generally with reddish-brown spots 

 on a white ground. To my eye the Cocks look heavy and 

 stupid, neither the head nor the tail being usually carried in an 

 erect position, or with any semblance of spirit. As regards 



