196 THE DORKING FOWL. 



size, they are magnificent. I saw one on my friend's dinner- 

 table three days since, quite as large as an ordinary Hen 

 Turkey ; it was a cockerel about seven months old. My expe- 

 rience of their laying and breeding qualities agrees mainly with 

 your statement, except that I should lay still stronger empha- 

 sis on their fatal clumsiness as mothers, which I am inclined 

 to think is aggravated by their extra toe behind, and the great 

 length of their back-toes. They frequently trample to death 

 their Chickens during the process of hatching, and in a small 

 coop they demolish them at a fearful rate. I think they never 

 should be cooped -with their chickens : but a still safer course 

 would be to hatch the Eggs under a mother of a less rough 

 physique, or perhaps by Cantelo's hydro-incubator." The only 

 question is, how the Hen is to be employed when the sitting 

 fit comes on, for they are most persevering sitters. I have 

 successfully hatched both Turkeys and Geese under Dorking 

 Hens. The latter will stand a great deal of trampling and 

 kicking about without taking much harm from it. Mr. Whit- 

 aker continues, " I have crossed the Dorkings with Pheasant 

 Malays. The first cross produces a fine bird, which is large, 

 though not prolific ; but if you were to cross the breed with 

 each other, they dwindle to nothing. The doctrine of breed- 

 ing is yet ill understood. I am disposed to think that, where 

 you have a real variety, breeding in is the natural and best 

 mode of procedure ; but that, when you cross two thorough 

 breeds, you have no guarantee that the cross breed will be good 

 further than the first result." 



It is a question how the Speckled Dorkings were first intro- 

 duced. Some maintain that the pure White Dorkings are the 

 original breed with five toes, and that the Speckled Dorkings 

 is a recent and improved cross, by which the size was much 

 increased, between the original White breed and the Malay, 

 or some other largf. stock of poultry. From this opinion I 

 must entirely dissent, on the ground of strong, though not ab- 



