MALAYS. 181 



The colours vary very much. Pure white is very beautiful, 

 but the most usual is that well known under the title of 

 black-breasted Wheaten Game. The legs are yellow, but 

 quite naked, and remarkably large in the pattern of the 

 scales. 



The head and beak are long, the latter being rather 

 hooked. Comb a sort of lump, covered with small promi- 

 nences like warts. There is a manifest tendency to pro- 

 duce pea-combs when small in size, pointing clearly to a 

 possible influence on the Brahma, and to relationship with 

 Indian Game fowls. The wattles and deaf-ears are small, the 

 eyes yellow or white, with very prominent eyebrows over- 

 hanging the eye, making the top of the head very broad 

 and giving a sour or cruel expression, which is added to by 

 the naked and snaky appearance of the head and throat. 

 This is not belied by the real character of the breed, which 

 is most ferocious, even more so than Game fowls, though 

 inferior to the latter in real courage. 



Malays are subject to an evil habit of eating each other's 

 feathers, a propensity which often occurs in close confine- 

 ment, and can only be cured by turning them on to a 

 grass-run of tolerable extent, and giving plenty of lettuce, 

 with an occasional purgative. 



The chickens are delicate, but the adult birds are hardy 

 enough. They appear especially adapted to courts and 

 alleys, and at one time might not unfrequently have been 

 seen in such localities in London. 



The principal merit of Malays is as table fowls. Skinny 

 as they appear, the breast, wings, and merrythought to- 

 gether carry more meat than those of most other breeds ; 

 and, when under a year old, of very good quality and 

 flavour. They also make good crosses with several breeds. 

 Mated with the Dorking, they produce splendid fowls for 

 the table, which also lay well ; and with the Spanish or 



