FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



En^al, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by Joseph M. 

 ade, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Jtanciees- Journal and Itjoultry (Exchange, 



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DAVENPORT POULTRY CLUB. 



(Continued from page 73, No. 5.) 

 It is proper here to take a survey of the pure varieties of 

 poultry, now recognized among us as worthy of fancy and 

 propagation since the "hen fever " has subsided into a ra- 

 tional interest in these pets, and especially into rational 

 prices for specimens. The specimens first brought from the 

 Orient were called Shanghais, Chittagongs, Cochin Chinas, 

 Brahma Poortras, &c, according as they had been obtained 

 at one or other seaport. But since, by inbreeding, they 

 have been reduced to distinct types, they are known as 

 Cochins, Brahmas, and Malays. Of the Qochins there are 

 the buff, lemon, cinnamon, grouse, partridge, white and 

 black. The last is sometimes erroneously called Black Java. 

 Of the Brahmas there are the light and dark. The chief 

 excellencies of these varieties are size (from 8 to 18 lbs.), 

 docility that requires but little fencing to restrict them, har- 

 diness, winter-laying, and early and constant sitting. Their 

 defects are, capacity for much food, flesh not so delicate as in 

 some others, and to fat and disease after passing the age of 

 eighteen months. The Malays are so long and bony with so 

 little flesh, and that of a poor quality, that they have been 

 discarded by fanciers. The Dorking family, comprising the 

 white-gray, silver-gray, and speckled, is an English product 

 with whom as a table fowl they have held the first place for 

 many years. Their excellencies are, abundance of the best 

 of flesh with smallness of bone, docility, and superiority as 

 sisters and mothers. Their defects are, great delicateness of 

 constitution while chicks, and being the poorest of winter- 

 layers, and the greatest of garden scratchers. The Black 

 Spanish fowl is a native of Spain, and probably from Spain 

 Columeli obtained his specimens 1800 years ago, from his 

 relative, whom he says was a " sharp and ingenious man 

 who engaged in breeding cattle and sheep in that country." 

 When carefully bred the Black Spanish are very handsome, 

 produces a great many eggs during summer, but spends a 

 long time in moulting, lays but little during the winter, sits 



occasionally and unreliably, and is very indifferent on the 

 table. The White Leghorn fowl is nearly the exact counter- 

 part of the Spanish, substituting white plumage for black, 

 but is rather more noisy, quarrelsome and thieving in dispo- 

 sition, and equally indifferent as a table bird. The Hamburgs, 

 spangled and pencilled golden, spangled and pencilled silver, 

 and black are difficult to locate in their origin. My opinion 

 is that the silver varieties are German, the pencilled golden, 

 Paduan or perhaps Turkish, the spangled golden English, 

 and the black a cross of spangled golden and Black Spanish. 

 They are to my eye the most beautiful of gallinacious fowls, 

 are unsurpassed as summer layers, and the early pullets are 

 good winter layers. The spangled golden is somewhat 

 larger than the silver varieties, and their flesh is the best that 

 grows on chicken bones, I think. The Hamburg, when 

 startled, is a great flyer, but ordinarily is of a most quiet 

 and gentle disposition. Close domestication destroys their 

 disposition to sit, but reared with unlimited range they oc- 

 casionally sit and make constant mothers. They are com- 

 paratively harmless in the garden and are almost proof 

 against roost robbers by reason of their persistent squaling 

 when handled. Their chief defects are, late maturity, small- 

 ness of size, and liability to " roup," though they rarely take 

 the cholera, the scourge of the Asiatic varieties. The Polish 

 fowl, black, white, silver and golden laced, is of Polish ori- 

 gin, perhaps Turkish, but most likely of East India. They 

 are called " Polish" for their large crests; are very pretty, 

 excellent summer layers, fair table fowls, but are delicate to 

 rear, small of size, mature slowly, and scratch the garden ex- 

 ceedingly. Bantams, Black African, whife-yellow, golden 

 and silver-laced, are merely ornamental fowls. They are 

 very handsome, proud of carriage, saucy, and quarrelsome. 

 Their diminutiveness renders them useless as practical, but 

 valuable as ornamental birds. The Bantam was first ob- 

 tained in the kingdom of Bantam, in the East Indies. The 

 gold and silver-laced Bantams, so called for the dark edging 

 on each feather in their plumage, are claimed to have been 

 produced as a composit variety by Lord Sebright, of Eng- 

 land, professedly in pursuance of the theories of Dr. Darwin. 

 But as Lord Sebright never divulged the " secret " of their 

 production, and a repetition of the claimed phenomenon had 

 never been effected, the whole claim seems very doubtful. 

 Game Bantams are mereh' dwarf game fowls, produced by 

 late and inbreeding, as dwarfs of any variety may be had. 

 The Dominiques and Plymouth. Rocks are varieties that seem 

 to have been evolved from miscellaneous breeding of other 

 varieties. The game fowl, whose origin has been already re- 

 ferred to, is of many varieties and subvarieties, but these 

 are reducible to three original types, the red, gray, and black. 

 Of these the red is best, being a better layer, sitter, and 

 mother; and is less quarrelsome though equally courageous 

 as compared with the others. The gray is larger, more 

 quarrelsome, and of all games the poorest layer. Games are 

 but moderately good winter layers as a class, but are unsur- 

 passed as sensible, sedate, though courageous sitters and 

 mothers. Among the many subvarieties of game, we may 

 name the Earl Derby, Pile (a name corrupted from pied), 

 blue, red and white pied. Also Seftons, Heathwoods, Stone- 

 fence, Clippers, Tartars, &c. I may be pardoned, perhaps, 

 for mentioning here a subvariety or strain, I have, with 

 encouraging success, endeavored to produce, with a view to 

 combining the best qualities of the game fowl in the highest 

 degree; i. e., excellence for the table, and as layers, sitters, 

 and mothers, requiring size, stamina, and courage as essential 



