184 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



saddle ; wing bow chestnut or crimson, wing bar green- 

 black ; tail green-black ; breast and all under parts green- 

 black. The green-black everywhere indescribably glossy. 

 The shanks are deep yellow. The hen's hackles are glossy 

 black with a bay shaft ; tail quills black, more or less 

 pencilled ; body feathers a chestnut-brown ground-colour, 

 rather broadly laced there should be on the feather two 

 lacings, though only one is usually visible with rich black, 

 the black so glossy that it almost seems to stand up on 

 the feather. There is no more beautiful plumage than 

 that of the Indian Game hen. 



This breed has considerable economic merit. It is not 

 over-quarrelsome, and the hen is a very fair layer, though 

 not in the first class. The breast and merrythought are 

 specially large and full of meat, and the chickens grow very 

 rapidly, more especially in the earlier stages. The breed 

 has the power of imparting these qualities to crosses, even 

 more than the Malay, and is valuable and much used in 

 this way. Crosses on the Dorking often take prizes at 

 shows of table poultry, and on Wyandottes, Rocks, and 

 Orpingtons (or short-legged Langshans) also produce very 

 fine table fowls. The earlier type, when this cross began to 

 be fashionable, was a much better cross for these purposes 

 than the more leggy type can be said to be, however, 

 and at some of the recent shows the Indian Game cross has 

 been obviously surpassed by that with Old English Game. 

 This matter may, however, be largely controlled by 

 judicious selection of the birds used for crossing ; and we 

 were glad to see at the principal shows of 1898 some 

 evident reaction against the leggy type in judging the 

 Indian Game classes. 



