FARM-YARD FOWLS. 



131 



TiiE UOLTON GKAY6. 



from his description, appears to be the Ostrich 

 fowl under a different name : " Booby is a large 

 fowl, weighing from 6 to 9 pounds. Of those that 

 E received, the smallest weighed 6 pounds, the 

 largest 1\ pounds ; the cock 9 pounds. These, 

 of course, were live weights. Their invariable 

 color is a black ground with white spots all over 

 them ; the legs are black ; they are shaped like 

 a turkey ; they are great layers, and are not so 

 much inclined to sit as the common hen; lay- 

 ing forty or fifty eggs before they are broody. I 

 procured mine from Pennsylvania." 



In a letter from a gentleman in Philadelphia, 

 who procured these fowls for the Doctor, he 

 says, "I shall send two lots of fowls, a cock 

 and three hens each. The Boobies are speckled, 

 and were furnished by a German, and are no 

 doubt a year old. There will be one hen with 

 these that the good honest man said was much 

 superior, and for which he was offered two dol- 

 lars on his way to the city. He had no name 

 for this fowl, but said these are the greatest fowls 

 ever seen in our part of the country." 



The editor of the New England Farmer says, 

 "We have received from our friend Dr. Kit- 

 tridge, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, six Boo- 

 by hens' eggs. These hens are considered as 

 the greatest of layers by those who have kept 

 them. ; and it appears that those which Dr. Kit- 

 tridge has have laid well after getting over the 

 effects of traveling. Owing to their being moved, 

 they did not lay much for fifteen days ; then 



they (four in number) laid thirty-six eggs in 

 ten days, and none showed a disposition to sit 

 excepting one, which he thought not of the Boo- 

 by breed." 



The Portsmouth Journal gives an account of 

 two varieties of hens of more than three times 

 the common size, and of proportionate value, 

 which can be as easily raised as the common 

 hen. "They have been raised," says the edi- 

 tor, "by Dr. Kittridge, of that town, are called 

 Boobies, and are speckled. The cock weighs 

 ten pounds, and some of the hens eight pounds. 

 They are prolific layers. Some of these eggs 

 weigh over 3 ounces each, and measure 3 inch- 

 es in circumference." 



THE BOLTON GRAYS. 



This variety of fowls derive their name from 

 having been extensively and superiorly cultiva- 

 ted in and about Bolton, England. From the 

 intermixture of black and white, they are termed 

 by some "Creole fowls:" at the present time 

 they are denominated in England " Silver-pen- 

 ciled Hamburgs," because many of them are 

 imported from Holland. 



Both sexes of this sub-variety are character- 

 ized by a compactness and neatness peculiarly 

 their own. Their color and size so nearly cor- 

 responds with the silver pheasant, that they are 

 sometimes crossed with that beautiful bird. The 

 cock has a full bright-red rose comb, about three 

 quarters of an inch wide, erect, though low on 



