FOWLS 



49 



the plumage is mottled irregularly, not distinctly marked as in 

 the party-colored varieties of Polish. The breed takes its name 

 from the town of Houdan, the center of a district in which this 

 is the common type of fowl. 



Spanish races. The fowls of Spanish origin well known out- 

 side of Spain are the White-faced Black Spanish, the Black 

 Minorca, and the Blue Andalusian. The fowls of Spain at 

 the present time are 

 mostly of the Italian 

 type, with black (or 

 in some districts 

 blue) the predom- 

 inant color. The 

 Black Spanish seems 

 to have been known 

 in Holland and Eng- 

 land for two hun- 

 dred years or more. 

 In Spain the white 

 face is but mod- 

 erately developed. 

 The monstrous ex- 

 aggeration of this 

 character began in 

 Holland and was 

 carried to the extreme by British fanciers who admired it. 



The Black Minorca is supposed to have been brought to Eng- 

 land direct from Spain about a century ago. There it was bred to 

 much greater size, with the comb often so large that it was a bur- 

 den to the fowl. Blue Andalusians, at first called Blue Spanish 

 and Blue Minorcas, were first known in England about 1850. 



Asiatic races of fowls. The evolution of races of fowls in the 

 Orient gave some general results strikingly different from those 

 in Europe. As far as is known, after the introduction of fowls 



FIG. 37. Black Minorca cock. (Photograph from 

 Arthur Trethaway, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) 



