Curious Attempt to Form a New Variety of Polish. 405 



that it had resulted from some accident or other, and as you could see and feel the apparently- 

 crushed bone at the end of the half toe, it was supposed she must have had it trodden off, or, 

 perchance, it might have been caught some time in a rat-trap. When breeding, that very season, I 

 soon became aware that a number of the best of the chickens were wanting in the corresponding 

 toe to the before-named old hen ; and, to establish conviction, or to prove the fallacy of my (then) 

 suspicions, I carefully selected for separate nests the eggs I knew were laid by the fowl I had so 

 opportunely saved from being made away with. The result was, the chickens, so far as the eggs 

 were prolific, were all minus the half-toe the same as the mother-hen, from which cause this hen's 

 chickens were readily selected. My sole motive in mentioning so strange a freak of Nature is to 

 prove how strongly hereditary this evidently unusual malformation proved itself in the offspring, 

 and as a warning to others not to breed from stock that possess any malformation whatever, as 

 sooner or later its reproduction may be fairly anticipated. 



" I confess myself, however, a total disbeliever in the ludicrous attempts that have been made 

 by some poultry amateurs to coerce Nature, as it were, by putting her in their leading-strings — 

 such as dyeing the wings of the old cock to make the chicks follow in the wake of the ' made-up' 

 parent, or the still more laughable attempt once made by an amateur long since gathered to his 

 fathers, and which constituted a never-ending theme of merriment at the time. This would-be 

 pioneer of improvements longed for, and stated his conviction that ' he could breed' White Polands 

 with black crests, a breed long since extinct, but naturally, in these poultry-loving days, most 

 covetable. He procured some eggs of the White Polands, a variety well-crested and heavily 

 bearded, but entirely white throughout the whole plumage. The chickens, as soon as the sexes 

 were at all discoverable, were carefully set apart, the pullets being sent away to a lone walk 

 far from the intrusions of any other poultry whatever. It so happened this adventurer 

 imprudently confided the secret plan of his operations to a friend, more noted for his satirical 

 joking than the expression of kindliness to the object of his mirth. It appears that after keeping 

 these pullets for months thus entirely secluded, as they commenced laying he one morning, in the 

 presence of his confidant, produced from a basket a White Polish cock, own brother to the pullets 

 in question, but with his crest and beard most artistically ' dyed ' pure black. When turned 

 down, the hens naturally viewed their new-fashioned looking companion much as they would have 

 done any other stranger that intruded on their hitherto unbroken seclusion. Enough transpired, 

 however, to excite to ecstasy the hopes of our amateur. Hens that were broody were purchased at 

 high prices ; every egg was tested in this ' speculation ;' very many chickens were the result ; but I 

 need scarcely say there was not a single une among them which, to use a nurse's phrase, was ' the 

 very picture of his father.' Such must be the sequel of all similar appliances to overrule the 

 natural order of things. Accidental 'sports' of colour or formation may with care be perpetuated 

 in coming generations ; but I should as soon anticipate that Game cockerels could be grown 

 without comb or wattles, because their progenitors had been denuded of them for centuries past, as 

 that purely artificial colouring or clipping of the feathers would affect the colour or shape of 

 future broods."* 



• We have in previous portions of this work shown grounds for believing that some effect is very frequently produced by 

 imagination or mental impression upon hens during the breeding season. But all such facts tend to show that these effects are very 

 variable and only occasional, depending much on individual character and other circumstances which do not admit of being 

 calculated ; and we should never dream of more than guarding against any possible mil results from this cause, or of attempting to 

 attain any definite and positive results from it. Even did we believe in the operation of the principle to the same extent as 

 Mr. Hewitt's amatem", we should say that his experiment lacked many elements of success, most obvious details being left 

 unattended to. 



