258 THE GAME FOWL. 



early and rapid production of Eggs. But, " nous verrons" as 

 old Ritchie used to say. 



If a goodly number of early Pullets of a prolific breed 

 were kept over, and well fed, instead of slaughtered to fill the 

 paunch of some impatient glutton, the great scarcity of Eggs 

 in late autumn and early winter, would, in a measure, cease. 



It strikes me a Hybrid (the first cross) will come to matu- 

 rity sooner than did either of its progenitors ; and that a cross 

 between the Creole and the Polish or the Black Spanish would 

 produce the best laying Hens in the world. If I am able to 

 procure either of the two last mentioned, I will try it. All 

 these things are worthy of inquiry, and should be fully inves- 

 tigated. 



If mongrelizing be, in no case, followed by permanent re- 

 sults, how is it that the Dorkings, which are said to be a 

 mixture, have been so celebrated for many years ? If, as you 

 assert, and as I am prone to believe, no permanent interme- 

 diate race can be established by crossing, it follows, ex necessi- 

 tate, that every well-defined breed has now, or has had a 

 separate and distinct original in the wilderness. All could not 

 have descended from the Gallus Giganteus and the Bankiva, for 

 all would in a few years revert back to the type of the one or the 

 other. But here, instead of furnishing you with my experi- 

 ence, I am presumptuously splurging out among theorems and 

 speculations and that is not my task. Facts ! i them's the 

 jockeys for me !' as you very eloquently remarked about the 

 Shanghaes. 



When I was a little boy, I owned a very odd-looking sort 

 of Fowls, called "Creepies," or " Creepers," from their ex- 

 ceedingly short legs ; and another kind, called " Bunties/' 

 which had no tails, and, in fact, no place for a tail to grow 

 they had no rumps. The Creepers I have seen* of all sizes, 

 from two pounds to five, with legs much shorter than Bantams, 

 and entirely bare. Of these varieties, I have never seen moro 



