206 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF POULTRY 



It is much to be regretted that English fanciers have done 

 nothing during modern times to manufacture new breeds by 

 crossing. We have seen that both the French and Americans 

 have done so with success ; and there can be little doubt that 

 many years ago the Coloured Dorking was made even in Eng- 

 land, by crossing the White Dorking on the speckled farmyard 

 fowl of Surrey. But nothing has been done since ; and it still 

 remains to produce a breed which shall combine the size of the 

 gigantic races, the fine flesh of the French races, the early 

 maturity of the Houdan and Dorking, and the prolificacy of 

 the Mediterranean or Hamburgh tribes. It is true some of 

 these qualities may be incompatible ; but we think they are 

 to be combined in a greater degree than in any single breed 

 at present known. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



BANTAMS. 



THERE is not the slightest reason for supposing that any of the 

 diminutive fowls known as Bantams are descended from an 

 original wild stock. They are in many cases the exact 

 counterparts of ordinary domestic breeds, carefully dwarfed 

 and perfected by the art of man ; and even where this is not 

 so, the process by which they were produced is occasionally 

 on record. They are, in fact, more than any other class, 

 " artificial fowls," and their attractiveness consists rather in 

 their beauty than in any economic value. 



SEBRIGHTS. Cock not to exceed twenty, and hen sixteen 

 ounces. For exhibition still less is preferable, but not for 

 breeding. Carriage of the cock, the most conceited it is pos- 

 sible to conceive of; head thrown back till it touches the 

 nearly upright tail ; wings drooping halfway down the legs ; 

 motions restless and lively, always strutting about as if seeking 

 for antagonists. The bird is, in fact, "game to the back- 



