THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



TUB 81LKY FOWL. 



from the weather of this country. They have 

 the power, it seems, to bring their feathers close 

 together during the occurrence of rain. 



Characteristics. Temminck states that the 

 prevailing color of the wild race is white, and 

 that in these the legs are smooth ; but there are 

 many specimens variously colored with black 

 and brown, and some of them have feathered 

 or booted legs. 



The cock has a beak much hooked; hackle 

 slightly tinged with yellow ; comb cupped and 

 toothed ; ear-lobe white ; feathers over the entire 

 body white, and projecting from being curved 

 back from the body, so as to give the bird an 

 appearance of being ruffled, and of having its 

 feathers rubbed in the wrong way ; tail ample 

 and well sickled ; legs bluish ; height 18 inch- 

 es; weight 4^ pounds. 



They are not good layers, and their eggs aver- 

 age little more than 2 ounces in weight. The 

 hens are good mothers, and the chickens are har- 

 dy. Though small, they are good table fowls. 



The specimens from which our portraits were 

 taken were presented to us by Dr. E. Wight, of 

 Boston, and were of a brown color. 



THE SILKY FOWL. 



This is one of the accidental varieties that 

 now and then break out in most yards, which 

 Temminck describes as a distinct species. By 

 modern writers it is also considered a species 

 rather than a variety. It is of good size, and 

 the whole body is covered with feathers, the 

 webs of which are disunited somewhat in the 

 manner of some of the feathers of the ostrich, 

 the emeu, and the peacock, and appear some- 

 what like hairs and glossy silk. 



Allusions to this bird are frequent, both in the 

 works of the older writers on the poultry-yard, 

 and in the early travelers in China, Japan, 

 and some parts of India. The extreme singu- 

 larity of their appearance would probably at- 

 tract observation where the far greater merits, 

 in an economical point of view, of the Malay 



