6o 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



surrounded by a heavy black lacing. This has been gradually 

 changed until now the white center is large and the black edging 

 narrow. At first some of these Wyandottes had rose combs and 

 some had single combs. The rose comb was preferred and the 

 single-combed birds were discarded as culls. 



Strange as it seems in the case of an event so recent, no one 

 knows where the first Wyandottes came from. It is supposed that 



they were one of the many 

 varieties developed either by 

 chance or in an effort to meet 

 the demand for a general- 

 purpose fowl. They appear 

 to have come into the hands 

 of those who first exploited 

 them in some way that left 

 no trace of their source. 

 They went under several 

 different names until 1883, 

 when the name " Wyandotte " 

 was given them as an appro- 

 priate and euphonious name 

 for an American breed. 



Next appeared a Golden- 

 Laced Wyandotte, marked 

 like the Silver-Laced variety 

 but having golden bay where 

 that had white. This variety 

 was developed from an earlier 

 variety of unknown origin, known in Southern Wisconsin and 

 Northern Illinois (about 1870 and earlier) under the name of 

 " Winnebago." 



The Silver- Laced Wyandottes, like the Barred Plymouth Rocks, 

 produced some black and some white specimens. From these were 

 made the Black Wyandottes and the White Wyandottes. Then 



FIG. 50. White Wyandotte cockerel 

 (Photograph from W. E. Mack, Wood- 

 stock, Vermont) 



