THE SPANISH FOWL. 209 



ways earlier and better feathered than the Cockerels : the latter 

 are generally half naked for a considerable length of time after 

 hatching. But this is not universally the case, for some of 

 my best Cockerels were feathered tolerably well at an early age. 

 This is a fact worth some particular remark, as many superfi- 

 cial observers in this neighbourhood have invariably rejected, 

 for breeding purposes, the Cockerels which got their feathera 

 early, supposing from that fact that they were not purely bred. 

 But I have not only found them to possess all the qualities of 

 the Spanish, fully and truly developed, but that their early 

 feathers so screen them from the inclemencies of the weather, 

 that they are enabled soon to outstrip their Drethren in size." 

 The black, however, is not the only valuable race of Spanish 

 Fowl, although certain metropolitan dealers, who have no 

 right to oifer an opinion, if they do not choose to give infor- 

 mation on the subject, presume to affirm that there can be no 

 such breed as speckled Spanish, it being characteristic of that 

 breed to be perfectly black. But Mr. Swainson justly com- 

 plains of the deficiencies and the conduct of this class of people ; 

 and it is surprising that, since the establishment of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society, they have not seen both the impolicy and the 

 impracticability of withholding information on natural history 

 from the public ; for I cannot suppose the folly of any attempt 

 to mislead. " Our first idea was to have drawn up (in the 

 volume on birds) as complete a catalogue as possible of all such 

 foreign birds as were to be met with in our public or private 

 menageries, distinguishing such as were known to have bred 

 in confinement, and had consequently become domesticated, 

 from such as were merely acclimated, or accustomed to our 

 climate. This, without doubt, would have been the most de- 

 sirable plan of proceeding, and would have given that informa- 

 tion to the lovers of aviaries, which is now so much wanted j 

 but further inquiry showed us the utter impossibility of doing 

 iliis, from the total absence of the necessary materials. It has 



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