18 POLANDERS. 



Poland. 



The POLAND FOWLS, as they are generally called, 

 were chiefly imported from Holland. Their colour 

 shining black, with white tops on the head of both 

 cock and hen. The head is flat, surmounted by a 

 fleshy protuberance, out of which spring the crown 

 feathers or top, white or black, with the fleshy King 

 David's crown, consisting of four or five spikes. They 

 are not so thickly covered with feathers as some 

 other breeds, and still less so with down. Their form 

 is plump and deep, and the legs of the best species 

 not too long. Perhaps the genuine sort has always 

 five claws, and as the Poland cock will produce occa- 

 sionally white stock from white English hens, it is 

 not improbable, the similarity of form likewise consi- 

 dered, that our famous Dorking breed may have been 

 originally raised from that cross : or supposing such 

 speculation groundless, the Dorking, differing as it 

 does from the common, may have been an imported 

 breed. 



The Polanders are not only kept as ornamental, 

 but they are one of the most useful varieties ; par- 

 ticularly on account of the abundance of eggs they 

 lay, being least inclined to sit of any other breed, 

 whence they are sometimes called everlasting layers, 

 and it is usual to set their eggs under other hens. 

 They fatten as quickly as any breed, and are in qua- 

 lity similar to the Dorking ; their flesh perhaps more 

 juicy, and of a richer flavour. On recent inquiry, 

 I understand that all the imported Polanders have 



