212 The Illustrated Book op Poultry. 



whatever that was — had been by this time chiefly merged into the White ^reed, while the Coloured 

 variety had retained it in less degree, or had perhaps been even formed by crossing the White 

 Dorking with those large speckled fowls which for many generations have been indigenous to the 

 counties of Surrey and Sussex, being probably produced by the fine dry soil of that part of 

 England more than by any special causes ; though for years lately the demand for the London 

 market has caused them to be largely cultivated, with peculiar care, and on a scale which brings in 

 yearly no small share of the income of those counties. 



COLOURED DORKINGS.— The change from the old Speckled or really Grey Dorkings 

 just described, to the larger and darker fowl now shown was undoubtedly effected by Mr. John 

 Douglas, and by means of a cross. This cross has been often alluded to, but very vaguely, by 

 previous writers on the Dorking fowl ; some saying that the Cochin was employed, whilst recently 

 the statement has been made that the alien stock used were Indian birds of the " Malayan" type. 

 Mr. Douglas himself, however, must obviously be the very best authority upon this point, and 

 has at our request kindly given the following interesting account of the process. We may add, 

 that in seeking these details we were not only desirous of clearing up the matter as regards the 

 Dorking fowl itself, but of publishing a valuable " lesson in crossing" for the benefit of breeders 

 generally ; this being a branch of the art which is as yet little cultivated, and by which we believe 

 very valuable results might be secured. 



"Dorkings, in 1857," says Mr. Douglas, "were considered of a good show weight if the cocks 

 attained nine pounds and a half, and the hens seven pounds and a half The hens were then 

 either of a grey or brown ruddy colour, and the cocks always showed a great deal of white in the 

 tail, with breasts inclined to be speckled of various colours ; not any standard colour, as shown at 

 the present day. 



" The first and only time I made a cross was with a dark grey cock, which had come from 

 India, weighing thirteen pounds. This bird was a model single-combed Dorking in all but the 

 fifth toe, which was absent ; and it is quite wrong to say he was of the Malayan type, for there 

 was not the least type of Malay about him — he had white legs and all the characters of the 

 Dorking, except, as before stated, the fifth toe. I firmly believe he must have been a cross from a 

 bird of the Dorking tribe taken out before to India, with what cross I could not say, but certainly 

 not the Malay. I put to this bird seven hens eighteen months old, and the produce turned out far 

 beyond my expectations — all were decidedly of the Dorking type, and very few but what had the 

 Dorking toe. Some of the pullets when seven months old weighed nine pounds, and cockerels ten 

 pounds and a half; while at eighteen months several hens reached ten pounds and upwards, cocks 

 coming up to thirteen pounds ; and one bird in particular, when two years and six months old, 

 weighed as much as fourteen pounds and a half, which was the heaviest weight I ever obtained in 

 the Dorking fowl. 



" So much for the first cross. The following season I mated one of the cockerels thus 

 produced to thirteen of the old hens, and the imported cock to seven of his own cross-bred pullets. 

 From the cockerel with the hens I chiefly obtained my uniformity of colour in the pullets, and also 

 my very dark cockerels ; but I also found I had obtained a much stronger constitution. From this 

 year's breeding many yards obtained the new blood, both by eggs and birds bought of me ; and 

 from that date (1858) we began to find at our shows a steadily increasing number of the Dark 

 Greys, and heavier weights began to be shown. 



" After the second year I lost the imported cock, and had then to work with the two yards 

 I had formed, but which I found no difficulty in doing. The stronger constitution thus introduced 



