QUALITIES OP HAMBURGHS. 179 



apt to show purple reflections, especially in the cock's hackles. 

 These must be avoided for cockerel-breeding; on the other 

 hand, these very birds often breed the most lustrous pullets, 

 the purple being apparently a sort of excess in lustre. 



REDCAPS. There is occasionally met with in Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire, under this name, a coarse, large sort/ of gold- 

 spangled bird, very irregular and poor in marking, and with 

 immense combs, often hanging over on one side. They may 

 have been originally some kind of Hamburgh mongrel ; and 

 while of no exhibition value, are the best layers of the whole 

 race. 



Hamburghs are in many circumstances a profitable breed 

 Except the Gold-spangled, which are all poor layers, they are 

 good layers when a good strain is secured. Each hen will 

 lay from 180 to 220 eggs in a year, which certainly exceeds 

 the production of any other fowl ; and if these are generally 

 small, the consumption of food is comparatively even more so. 

 Though naturally loving a wide range, there is no real difficulty 

 in keeping them in confinement if cleanliness be attended to. 

 Perhaps the Silver-spangled and Black are best adapted for 

 such circumstances. With a good egg-market near, the 

 Redcap is one of the most profitable fowls a farmer can have. 

 Except for very close confinement, or in damp situations (when 

 they are peculiarly subject to roup, especially the two pencilled 

 varieties), more profitable fowls cannot be had, while their 

 varieties of barring, pencilling, and spangling are the very per- 

 fection of beauty in plumage. 



The great difficulty in keeping them arises from their 

 erratic propensities. Small and light, they fly like birds, and 

 even a ten-feet fence will not retain them in a small run. 

 They may, it is true, be kept in a shed ; but, if so, the number 

 must be very limited Where six Brahmas would be kept, 

 four Hamburghs are quite enough, and they must be kept dry 

 and scrupulously clean. The pencilled birds are, as already 

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