200 THE DORKING FOWL. 



follows : " I shall write to Mr. Courtney again, who lives neap 

 Dorking. He told me, and I have also ascertained the same 

 fact myself from other quarters, that none is to be obtained 

 here, unless of a mongrel breed. " Mr. Courtney, in a letter to 

 Captain Morgan, says, " The Old White sort is altogether bred 

 out, and the Speckled and Gray varieties are now all the rage, 

 and altogether are, perhaps, the best barn-door Fowls in 

 existence." 



The Reverend Edward Saul Dixon, the author of a work on 

 Ornamental and Domestic Poultry, published in London in 

 1850, says, " For those who wish to stock their Poultry-yards 

 with Fowls of most desirable shape and size, clothed in rich 

 and variegated plumage, and, not expecting perfection, are will- 

 ing to overlook one or two points, the Speckled Dorkings, so 

 called from the town in Surrey, which brought them into mo- 

 dern repute, are the breed to be at once selected/' 



" It is a question how the Speckled Dorkings were first in- 

 troduced. Some maintain that the pure White Dorkings are 

 the original breed, and that the Speckled Dorkings are a recent 

 and improved cross." 



After speaking of the good qualities of the Speckled Dorkings, 

 Mr. Dixon says, " With all these merits they are not found to 

 be a profitable stock if kept thorough-bred and unmixed. Their 

 power seem to fail at an early age. They are also apt to 

 pine away and die, just at the point of reaching maturity ; par- 

 ticularly the finest specimens, that is, the most thorough-bred, 

 are destroyed by this malady. These, and a few other appa- 

 rently trifling facts, seem to show that with the Speckled Dork- 

 ings, the art of breeding has arrived at its limits." 



Mr. Dixon further says, " In the Speckled Dorkings the 

 lungs seem to be the seat of the disease. They appear at a 

 certain epoch to be seized with consumption. I do not believe 

 that the most favourable circumstances would prevent the com- 



