264 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



least better eating than nine-tenths of the chickens that can be bought at any but the very first 

 London poulterers'. We have heard this testimony again and again borne to birds we have sent for 

 some friend's table ; and we venture to assert that a well-fed cockerel, of eight or ten pounds' weight, 

 at six months old, dressed and served precisely as a turkey, will be found little inferior, either 

 in appearance or eating, to the nobler bird. The legs are particularly juicy and tender, which 

 is a great gain in such substantial parts ; and, regarding it as a table fowl, any one who finds 

 fault with a Brahma under the age of twelve months must be very particular indeed. As an 

 old fowl, undoubtedly, it cannot be compared with tlie Dorking, and should be either boiled, 

 curried, or stewed. 



The constitution of the chicks, when bred from mature birds, is excellent. Many exhibition 

 specimens are bred from young stock on both sides, and such are rather liable to suffer from leg- 

 weakness ; they also feather slowly, and require therefore much care if hatched early in the year. 

 The progeny of adult birds, however, cannot possibly be surpassed in hardihood, and may be reared 

 with hardly a death in the yard. 



Tlie fecundity of the hens is very great. It is true the production of eggs is considerably 

 interfered with by the propensity to sit ; but, in spite of this, there are many which will produce 

 over 150 eggs per annum, which is a very high average. The tendency to incubate differs greatly 

 in individuals. We have had hens which wished to sit when they had laid about twenty eggs, while 

 others will lay from fifty to a hundred ; and we have known cases where a hen has laid through the 

 whole year with hardly a stoppage. There is no doubt whatever, as we have hinted already in 

 Chap. VIII., that egg-production has been actually lessened in Dark Brahmas by the keen 

 competition of fanciers in breeding for " feather." Attention has beerj so exclusively directed to 

 this point that others have been neglected and have suffered ; besides which, exhibitors have 

 actually sought to postpone the laying of their pullets as far as possible, in order to keep them in 

 show condition. This, repeated for generations, has no doubt had a serious effect on egg-production ; 

 but what the breed is capable of is well shown by the following communication from Mr. John Evans, 

 of Keynsham, near Bristol for the truth of which we can personally vouch : — 



"My experience of Dark Brahmas commenced in the spring of 1870; and being desirous to 

 ascertain the productiveness of this class of fowl, I kept an accurate account for twelve months, day 

 by day, of the number of eggs laid by three pullets — not themselves exhibition birds, though 

 descended from prize ancestors of Miss Watts's strain. During the period named, the total egg- 

 production of these three birds amounted in the aggregate to 629 : and although I regret that I did 

 ■not keep a separate account for each one, I am rnorally certain, from attentive observations that 

 were made, that two of these birds produced each a much larger number of eggs than the third, 

 and I am sure I am substantially correct in assigning to the two so referred to a proportion of 

 500 eggs out of thei^total number laid ; thus showing a contribution to the egg-basket of 250 eggs 

 each during the twelve months, as well as hatching and rearing a brood of chickens each within the 

 same time. Two pullets from one of these birds, hatched on the 7th of. March, commenced to lay 

 within a day of each other, on the i6th and 17th of the August following, at the ages of five months 

 and nine days and five months and ten days respectively, and continued to lay without intermission 

 until the nth of the following November, when I sold them. In the spring of 1872 I obtained 

 from a gentleman to whom I had sold a pullet a granddaughter of one of the hens first named, and 

 she commenced to lay early, producing an &^z per day for five days ; ceased the succeeding three 

 days, and then, with a faculty for egg-production at least equal to that possessed by her maternal 

 ancestry, laid sixty eggs in sixty-two days. I then disposed of her to a gentleman who, on my meet- 

 ing him some few weeks afterwards, told me that her laying continued to be of the same character. 



