176 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF POULTRY. 



be a dense black, and the ground colour between quite clear. 

 The silver is slightly the largest breed. 



GOLDEN-SPANGLED. Whilst the markings on pencilled 

 Hamburghs consist of parallel bars across the feathers, the 

 varieties we are now to consider vary fundamentally in having 

 only one black mark at the end of each feather, forming the 

 "spangle." This black marking varies in shape, and though 

 only one variety is recognised in each colour at poultry 

 exhibitions, it is quite certain that both in gold and silver 

 there were two distinct breeds, distinguished by the shape of 

 the spangle. 



The best known of the two varieties, and the most often 

 seen, was the breed long known in Lancashire under the name of 

 " Mooneys," from the spangles being round, or moon-shaped. 

 The ground colour of the pure Golden " Mooney " Ham- 

 burghs was a rich golden bay, each of the feathers having 

 a large circle, or moon, of rich black, having a glossy green 

 reflection. (See "Feathers," No. 4.) The hackle should be 

 streaked with greenish black in the middle of the feathers, 

 and edged with gold. Tail quite black, even in the hens. All 

 the spangles should be large and regular in shape. 



The cock of this breed was rather small, and was coarse in 

 head with reddish deaf-ears, the latter point being common to 

 the hens also. Many of the cocks were also hen-feathered, and 

 such were once shown ; but finally the judges discarded them, 

 and then something else had to be done. 



The second variety was known chiefly in Yorkshire as 

 " Pheasant fowls," and differed greatly in the plumage. Instead 

 of the spangles being round, as in the " Mooneys," they were 

 crescent shaped (See "Feathers," No. 3), approaching the 

 character of lacing ; the marking was also seldom so sharp and 

 definite, being often a little, "mossed." In the cock the 

 crescent spangles on the breast ran so much up the sides of the 

 feathers as really to become almost a lacing. But the ears 



