68 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



FIG. 58. Black-Tailed White Japanese Bantams 

 (Photograph from Frederick W. Otte, Peek- 

 skill, New York) 



town of Bantam as the 

 home of a true species 

 of dwarf domestic fowl 

 seems to have occurred 

 to some one in England 

 more than a hundred 

 years ago, and to have 

 been suggested because 

 of the resemblance of 

 the name of this Asiatic 

 city to the English word 

 " banty," the popular 

 name for a dwarf fowl. 

 It seems strange that 

 such a fiction should be 

 accepted as accounting 

 for dwarf varieties of European races, but it was published by 

 some of the early writers, used by lexicog- 

 raphers, and, having found a place in the 

 dictionaries, was accepted as authoritative by 

 the majority of later writers on poultry, even 

 after some of the highest authorities had 

 shown conclusively that this view of the 

 origin of dwarf races 

 was erroneous. 



No evidence of the 

 existence of a dwarf 

 race of fowls in Java 

 has ever been produced. The Chinese and 

 Japanese bantams did not come to Europe 

 and America until long after the name 

 "bantam" came into use. Dwarfs occur 



FIG 60 White Poli and undoubtedly have occurred frequently 

 Bantam cock in every race of fowls. Usually they are 



FIG. 59. White Polish 

 Bantam hen 



