TYPES, BREEDS, AND VARIETIES OF FOWLS 377 



quality in them than in the familiar races of the general-purpose 

 type that " meat type " seems the more appropriate designation, 

 especially for those varieties made from European stocks without 

 recourse to the Asiatic blood used in making American general- 

 purpose breeds. These European meat types have usually been 

 made by developing the size and meat qualities of the laying types, 

 - in some cases by selection and feeding, oftener by crossing, but 

 nearly always with the shape of the laying type preserved. This 

 is not apparent 

 when the largest, 

 best-meated, and 

 fattest of the meat 

 type are compared 

 with the ordinary 

 specimens of the 

 laying type, but 

 comparison of large 

 birds of the laying 

 type with medium- 

 sized or small ones 

 of the meat type in 

 the same condition 

 of flesh will show 

 that their normal 

 lines are much the 

 same, even though 

 their dimensions 



differ. "Meat type," however, means more than form carrying 

 abundance of meat. Quality of meat and tendency to fatten readily 

 are fully as important as shape. 



English meat types. There are three English meat types. The 

 principal one (and the one most distinctively English) is that of 

 which the Dorking is the favorite, though perhaps not the earlier 

 type. This type is plainly related to the Mediterranean laying type. 

 The others are the Indian Game (already described as a modifica- 

 tion of the Game type still retaining pronounced Game character) 

 and the Redcap (a meat type of the Hamburgs). The English 

 have made one or more meat breeds of each of the conspicuous 



FIG. 371. Bearded Silver-Spangled Polish. (Photograph 

 from owner, Lionel Lincoln, Jr.) 



