FRIZZLED FOWLS. 



159 



FRIZZLED FOWLS. 



Old Dame Nature cuts some curious freaks, as the above 

 fowls manifest. Not being content to allow all fowls to have 

 their feathers lie smoothly from head to tail, she must evince 

 her caprice by turning the feathers around on the above fowls, 

 and have them point towards the head ! The above portraits 

 are from life, and give a very correct idea of the figure of the 

 fowls. They are a curiosity, to say the least of them. They 

 are bred by a, few New England fanciers, and are sold as an 

 ornamental fowl. What their laying qualities are, I am not 

 fully prepared to say, but Nolan gives them a good character 

 for productiveness. He says : 



They arc healthy, hardy, and abundant layers, good sitters, and no 

 better mothers, and the chickens easily reared, and though, to appear- 

 ance, they are exposed to the inclemency of the weather, they are not 

 so, having an abundant downy covering under their feathers, and 

 well calculated for bringing up their own, or any -other stock. I can 

 with confidence recommend them as mothers, for Game fowl, (I mean 

 Pheasants, Capercalzie, Black-cock, Ptarmigan, Grouse, or Partridge,) 

 and are just as easily kept as the commonest cottage breed ; they are 

 of all colors ; of the ordinary size of our domestic fowl ; are said to 

 be of eastern origin. The cock weighs about five pounds, and stands 

 about eighteen inches high ; the hen about four and a half pounds, 

 and stands about sixteen inches high. The plumage has a truly sin- 

 gular appearance, each feather being curled up, and projecting from 

 the bird ; the comb rather large, serrated and erect ; free from top- 

 knot ; ears and cheeks of ordinary appearance ; wattles, large and 

 rounded ; hackles, to correspond with their color ; tail, plumed as in 

 other fowls ; legs, of the various colors of the bird. 



