THE FRIZZLED, OR FRIESLAND FOWL. 305 



the hieroglyphic of the thing meant, than an actual verisimi- 

 lar representation of it. 



Temminck states positively that the Negro Fowl exists in 

 a wild state in India ; and that both it and the Silky Fowls 

 differ anatomically from the ordinary Domestic Fowls. Buffon 

 wonders what it can be which the Negro Fowls find to eat in 

 their native home, so to change the colour, not merely of their 

 comb and skin, but of their periosteum also. 



Analogous to the Silky Fowl is the Lace Pigeon, so called 

 on account of the peculiarity of its feathers, the fibres or web 

 of which appear disunited from each other throughout their 

 whole plumage. 



THE FRIZZLED, OR FRIESLAND FOWL. 



IT is difficult to say whether this be an aboriginal variety, 

 or merely a peculiar instance of the morphology of feathers; 

 the circumstance that there are also Frizzled Bantams would 

 seem to indicate the latter case to be the fact. School-boys 

 used to account for the up-curled feathers of the Frizzled Fowl, 

 by supposing that they had come the wrong way out of the shell. 

 They are to be met with of various colours, but are disliked 

 and shunned, and crossly treated by other Poultry. Old- 

 fashioned people sometimes call them French Hens. The 

 reversion of the feathers, rendering them of little use as clothing 

 to the birds, makes this variety to be peculiarly susceptible 

 of cold and wet. They have thus the demerit of being tender 

 as well as ugly. In good specimens, every feather looks as if 

 it had been curled the wrong way with a pair of hot curling- 

 irons. The stock is retained in existence in this country more 

 by importation than by rearing. The small Frizzled Bantams 

 at the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, are found to be 

 excellent sitters and nurses. Aldrovandi has an unmistakeable 



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