THE ORIGIN OF THE DOMESTIC COCK. 329 



single, small and serrated, wattles small, with red deaf ear; 

 their whole plumage very hard and short, and their general 

 appearance elegant, fearless, and defiant. 



There are several other varieties of pure game fowl common 

 here, besides those I have mentioned ; but as they are only very 

 briefly alluded to in this paper it is hardly worth while describing 

 them. I may, however, add that they are principally Brown- 

 reds, Duck-wings, Blacks, Birchens, Ginger-reds, and Hennies, 

 this last variety having the tails of the cocks exactly the same as 

 in the hens, hence their name. In all these varieties, even in 

 pure Black, the black metallic bar on the wing is distinctly visible 

 or traceable (except perhaps in Whites and Piles) ; and this may 

 also be said of most of the common farmyard poultry of the 

 country. In many of the Black-red cocks, especially when per- 

 mitted to have a wide range of ground, and wood-covers to roam 

 over, there is often a tendency to droop the tail, but I think the 

 contrary is the case amongst birds constantly exhibited or much 

 confined. 



Being possessed of a very old breed of White game, I deter- 

 mined, about sixteen years ago, to breed some Piles, and for this 

 purpose I procured a very well-bred Black-red game hen with 

 willow legs, to which I put an excellent White game cock, a prize- 

 winner. From these I obtained a hatch of chickens, out of 

 which only one turned out an indifferent Pile hen, whilst the rest 

 were all Blues ; these showed such high breeding that I kept the 

 best of them, and, not being able to obtain any other Blues in 

 order to introduce fresh blood, I bred from brother and sister. 

 To my great astonishment they bred true Blues, very good buxls, 

 with not the slightest trace of white among them, the only per- 

 ceptible difference being that the red in both the cocks and hens 

 so bred was more abundant than in the parent Blues, and I have 

 no doubt but that in a few more generations they would have 

 relapsed into common red fowls — that is, red cocks and brown 

 hens, with more or less of the elegance of the game fowl. On the 

 other hand, had fresh blue blood been introduced, a permanent 

 breed of great beauty might have been established. I omitted 

 to say their legs were blue. I was unable to carry on the cross 

 further, a game-fancier having been so struck with them on 

 seeing them that he bought them at a high price. 



Having afterwards bred from the White cock above mentioned 



ZOOLOGIST. AUGUST, 1884. 3 C 



