COLOURED DORKINOS. 163 



the year 1858, Mr. John Douglas, then in charge of the Duke 

 of Newcastle's aviaries at Clumber, crossed the English breed 

 with a cock from India. This bird was not a Cochin or 

 Malay, as often alleged, but of distinctly Dorking type in 

 everything but the fifth toe, and was probably the result of 

 some Dorking cross in India on some Asiatic bird unknown. 

 He was very large, and the progeny was on an average at least 

 two pounds heavier than the old English stock, and much more 

 uniform in plumage, the hens being very dark, verging in 

 parts upon a brownish -black, with robin breasts, and the cocks 

 more black-breasted. Few had not the fifth toe, and all soon 

 came true in that respect ; and this cross has now influenced all 

 the exhibition stock, greatly increasing the size and hardiness of 

 the fowls, without losing any important point, except, perhaps, in 

 one exception : that is, that with the habitual dark colour has 

 crept in a dark or sooty foot, and even leg. There is no evidence 

 that this is due to the cross, for the cross with even Cochins 

 does not tend to dark legs, though it often does to yellow ones ; 

 and the first results, when the cross was strongest, were not dark- 

 legged ; it is simply that very dark colour tends to produce dark 

 legs in all fowls, and this is by no means inconsistent with 

 white skin and meat But dark legs do look out of place, 

 to say the least, in a Dorking ; and of late there has been a 

 disposition in some quarters to lay more stress on the colour of 

 the legs and feet, even at the expense of some size, and to 

 return to more variety in plumage. That the Coloured Dorking 

 ought to be judged as a table-fowl chiefly is undoubted, and 

 acknowledged by all ; but some judges lay more stress upon 

 the colour of the legs, as against the greater size and dark 

 plumage preferred by others. 



In the Silver-grey Dorking, however, colour is imperative. 



This variety, there is not the slightest doubt, was at first a 



chance offshoot from the preceding, but has been perpetuated 



by careful breeding. The Silver-grey colour is as follows : 



L 2 



