Frizzled Fowls. 443 



In the course of many years experience in breeding, and intercourse with other amateurs, 

 we have frequently met with birds, of all the Asiatic races especially, in which the neck-hackles 

 had a tendency to twist out of the true sweeping line, towards the back of the neck; a defect well 

 known among Cochin breeders, and less so among Brahma fanciers, as a " twisted hackle." The 

 causes of this defect have usually appeared to us to consist chiefly in either breeding from young 

 birds on both sides, or the exclusive use of too dry a food, such as oatmeal unmixed. However 

 this may be, the fault has a strong disposition to be hereditary; and the tendency to it is very 

 plainly the same which, exaggerated and developed, produces the Frizzled fowl. Indeed, by 

 selecting specimens with such twisted hackles, and breeding them together, birds partially frizzled 

 would almost certainly be produced. 



Frizzled fowls occasionally vary in other characteristics, though usually presenting neat rose- 

 combs and short dark legs. The peculiarity is in the plumage ; every feather being curled back in 

 the wrong direction, as if the bird had been roughly stroked the wrong way, and presenting a most 

 grotesque appearance. The tail-feathers are not, of course, thus re-curved, but the webs are loose 

 and disconnected. The most usual colour shown in this country is white, but we have seen 

 very handsome brown or rather partridge-coloured specimens, and also black. The last colour 

 is to our fancy the handsomest of all, and we have accordingly selected it for illustration in 

 the plate, which renders the birds to the life ; all previous illustrations of this breed which we have 

 seen being the merest caricatures. 



Frizzled fo\vls have the general reputation of being delicate and rather susceptible to cold or 

 wet. Mr. Hewitt endorses this opinion, which would seem reasonable in itself, from the loose and 

 unprotective character of the plumage ; but it is singular that most people who have actually kept 

 and bred the fowl for any length of time are of a different opinion, as are persons who reside where 

 it is indigenous. Mrs. Taylor, of Ardgillan Castle, Balbriggan, Ireland, who has kept this breed 

 for many years, has kindly sent the following : — 



" I have kept White Frizzled fowls now for seven or eight years, and think them a most useful 

 and profitable variety. They are always \\\q first to lay in the autumn, which I attribute to their 

 early moulting— my poultry-woman writes me from home that they are all featherless already 

 (June loth). They are also excellent mothers, and from their feathers being nothing but fluff, they 

 always seem to keep their eggs warmer than other hens when sitting. 



" They have a very marked power to reproduce their peculiarities— the turned-back feather 

 and rose-comb — even when several times crossed with other breeds. I have also remarked that 

 although the parent birds in my pure-bred runs are all white, a jet-black chicken h-.s often been 

 produced ; which fact, and the observations of Captain ToUemache in the Mauritius, lead me to 

 believe that the Black is not an original variety. 



"The first I ever possessed came from a farmer in Westmcath, and at that time they 

 were common both in that county and in Cavan. I have since tried to obtain some from that 

 locality, but they are nearly extinct, and I could not meet with any true-bred specimens. My 

 first birds were not pure white, but each feather had a very delicate pencilling of gre}', which 

 Captain ToUemache states is the general colour of the Mozambique fowl in the Mauritius. 

 By always selecting the whitest birds, my stock is now pure white, but a black chick still 

 occasionally appears. 



" I consider them the most valuable fowls I possess. They are excellent for the table, and' 

 even a hen two years old gives very white meat, and much more tender than that of any other 

 variety. The smallness of their bones also makes them desirable for the table. They seldom or 

 never want to sit, and are, to my taste, very ornamental. They are very hardy, and the chicks 



