TYPES, BREEDS, AND VARIETIES OF FOWLS 381 



to have been produced by a blending of Spanish and Polish blood. 

 The color is black, and the high station suggests the Spanish. The 

 peculiar comb, with two prongs, or horns, suggests a Polish strain. 

 There is a similar race, Du Mans, with rose comb. The two are 

 probably akin, but their relations are not known. The rose comb 

 of the latter indicates a Hamburg cross. As has been shown, the 

 Minorca (Spanish) in England and America has been brought to 

 a large size without special development of table qualities. It may 

 readily be supposed that Spanish stock in France, mingled with 

 Polish and Hamburg, gave in one place the forked-combed La 

 Fleche and in another the rose-combed Du Mans, and that in 

 breeding for market the large size and readiness to put on flesh 

 and fat were developed without recourse to other crosses. American 

 Standard weights for La Fleche are cock, 8^ pounds ; cockerel, 

 7j pounds ; hen, 7^ pounds; pullet, 61 pounds. It is said that in 

 France the weights often exceed i o pounds for males and 8 pounds 

 for females. La Fleche fowls are rarely seen in America. 



Houdan, Crtvecceur, and Mantes, are similar races, the first two 

 developed, apparently, from a Polish foundation, the other from 

 the Polish or Houdan by blending with a single-combed type. It 

 has been suggested that the Bresse may have been used for this. 

 The Houdan is in appearance a black-and-white mottled, bearded 

 Polish, with a strain of Dorking blood, giving greater length and 

 massiveness of body and the characteristic fifth toe. The Creve- 

 cceur is a fowl of the same size and type but black in color and 

 without the fifth toe. The Mantes has the mottled plumage of the 

 Houdan, lacks the fifth toe, and has a single comb and no crest. 

 All these so-called breed differences are superficial, just such 

 differences as variations in ideas of breeders in different localities 

 would be likely to make in a type developed for the same purpose 

 on the same body lines. The Houdan is well known and well dis- 

 tributed in America ; the Crevecceur, rare ; the Mantes, unknown. 

 Following are the American Standard weights for these races. 

 Houdans : cock, 7 pounds ; cockerel, 6 pounds ; hen, 6 pounds ; 

 pullet, 5 pounds. Crevecceurs : cock, 8 pounds ; cockerel, 7 pounds ; 

 hen, 7 pounds ; pullet, 6 pounds. These weights are often ex- 

 ceeded. The Houdan in this country presents considerable differ- 

 ences in size and shape. Some strains are small and light-bodied, 



