ORIGIN AND DESCRIPTION OF BREEDS 47 



consistent to take up the Dorking, which is fully the equal 

 of the Orpington as a table fowl and in addition lays a 

 white egg. 



The Buff Orpington. The origin is somewhat clouded 

 in obscurity. Brown and other English authorities argue 

 that the Buff Orpington came from a farm fowl known 

 locally as the Lincolnshire buffs, and that its real origin 

 was the Dorking crossed on the common fowl, intercrossing 

 with Buff Cochin. William Cook, however, is usually given 

 credit in this country for originating the breed, and he 

 claims that he crossed the Golden Spangled Hamburg and 

 the Buff Cochin, and then the Dorking. Brown states 

 that there is abundant evidence that the great majority of 

 the present-day Buffs are directly bred from Lincolnshire 

 buffs without the slightest relationship to Mr. Cook's 

 strain. Mr. K. de Courcy Peele says: "The foundation 

 had been laid many years previous to Mr. Cook's time in 

 the shape of the Lincolnshire buffs, a variety, if it may be 

 so called, which has for many years been the acknowledged 

 farmer's fowl in and about Spaulding and the neighbor- 

 ing towns." 



The Black Orpington. There seems to be no question 

 that William Cook was the originator of the Black Orping- 

 ton. The interesting point in its origin, according to Mr. 

 Cook himself, is that its ancestors were rejected specimens 

 of Black Minorca, Black Langshan, and Plymouth Bock 

 (black). The Minorca had such marks as red earlobes; 

 the Langshan no feathers on legs, and the Plymouth Rock 

 fowls were black. This is a mongrel origin, so far as pres- 

 ent exhibition points are concerned. From such an origin 

 we have one of our most beautiful breeds of fowls and 

 one of considerable utility. 



The White Orpington. The White Orpington is said 

 to have been produced by a combination of White Leghorn, 



