106 GOOD FROM CROSSING. Chap. XVII. 



We thus see that there is almost complete unanimity with 

 poultry-breeders that, when fowls are kept at the same place, 

 evil quickly follows from interbreeding carried on to an extent 

 which would be disregarded in the case of most quadrupeds. 

 Moreover, it is a generally received opinion that cross-bred 

 chickens are the hardiest and most easily reared. 37 Mr. Tegetmeier, 

 who has carefully attended to poultry of all breeds, says 38 that 

 Dorking hens, allowed to run with Houdan or Crevecceur cocks, 

 " produce in the early spring chickens that for size, hardihood, 

 " early maturity, and fitness lor the market, surpass those of any 

 "pure breed that we have ever raised." Mr. Hewitt gives it as 

 a general rule with fowls, that crossing the breed increases their 

 size. He makes tliis remark after stating that hybrids from 

 the pheasant and fowl are considerably larger than either progenitor : 

 so again, hybrids from the male golden pheasant and female common 

 pheasant " are of far larger size than either parent-bird." 39 To 

 this subject of the increased size of hybrids I shall presently return. 



With Pujeonf, breeders are unanimous, as previously stated, 

 that it is absolutely indispensable, notwithstanding the trouble 

 and expense thus caused, occasionally to cross their much-prized 

 birds with individuals of another strain, but belonging, of course, 

 to the same variety. It deserves notice that, when size is one 

 of the desired characters, as with pouters, 40 the evil effects of close 

 interbreeding are much sooner perceived than when small birds, 

 such as short-faced tumblers, are valued. The extreme delicacy 

 of the high fancy breeds, such as these tumblers and improved 

 English carriers, is remarkable ; they are liable to many diseases, 

 and often die in the egg or during the first moult ; and their eggs 

 have generally to be hatched under foster-mothers. Although 

 these highly-prized birds have invariably been subjected to much 

 close interbreeding, yet their extreme delicacy of constitution 

 cannot perhaps be thus fully explained. Mr. Yarrell informed me 

 that Sir J. Sebright continued closely interbreeding some owl- 

 pigeons, until from their extreme sterility he as nearly as possible 

 lost the whole family. Mr. Brent 41 tried to raise a breed of 

 trumpeters, by crossing a common pigeon, and recrossing the 

 daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, and great-great- 

 granddaughter, with the same male trumpeter, until he obtained 

 a bird with ^f of trumpeter's blood; but then the experiment 

 failed, for "breeding so close stopped reproduction." The ex- 

 perienced Neumeister 42 also asserts that the offsju-ing from dove- 

 cotes and various other breeds are "generally very fertile and 



37 ' The Poultry Chronicle.' vol. i. *« ' A Treatise on Fancy Pigeons.' 

 p. 89. by J. M. Eaton, p. 56. 



38 'The Poultry Book,' 1866, p. 41 < The Pigeon Book.' p. 46. 



210. A - ' Das Ganze der Taubenzucht, 



39 Ibid. 1866, p. 167 ; and ' Poultry 1837, s. 18. 

 Chronicle,' vol. iii., 1855, p. 15. 



