FRIZZLE AND SILKY. 



57 



present. But in some birds the barbules are long and devoid of cilia or hook- 

 lets as in the Ratitae (ostrich, emu, cassowary, etc.). In poultry the down 

 feathers are characterized by absence of booklets, and the ventral abdominal 

 feathers of poultry belong to this category. In the Silky fowl the contour 

 feathers, in the strict sense, are absent, or rather they have gained long 

 hookless barbs, and consequently have become in so far down feathers. 

 But the feathers of the Silky fowl have one new characteristic not found in 

 any other long-barbed forms, namely, the bifurcation and anastomosis of 

 the barbs (page 58). 



TABLE OF CHARACTERISTICS. 



REMARKS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS. 



1 . Plumage Color. — This characteristic is very variable in Frizzles, owing 

 to the fact that fanciers have established no color "varieties," although an 

 effort is now being made in that direction.* As stated below in detail, my 

 Frizzles were of varied and mixed colors. 



2. Comb Forms. — The "American Standard " calls for single comb in the 

 Frizzle and rose, or rather strawberry, comb in the Silkies. My Frizzles 

 have, on the contrarj"^, a rose comb, and my Silkies either a single comb or a 

 rose comb, the Silky being impure in respect to this characteristic. 



3-5. Feather Form. — In the Frizzles the contour feathers have the shaft 

 curved so that its outer surface becomes concave. This is most striking in 

 the neck region, where a ruff is formed (fig. 41). The wing primaries are 

 modified in another direction, since in them the barbs, in groups of 4 to 8, 

 are twisted in corkscrew fashion about their own axis and through 180° or 

 more ; consequently the gray surface, which is normally next the body, 

 comes to lie outermost. Such a twisting of the barbs sometimes occurs in 

 primaries of non-frizzled races ; particulary I have found it in the eighth 

 primary of some Houdans. The barbs of the remiges of the Frizzles are 

 mostly short, and in some cases are lacking altogether, being easily broken off. 



The feathers of the Silky fowl are remarkable in all parts of the plumage. 

 The contour feathers, as already stated, are down feathers, whose shaft is 



*The new "American Standard of Perfection," published by the American Poultry 

 Association, 1905, p. 248, directs that color should be " solid — black, white, red, and bay 

 admissible, provided the birds match when shown in pairs, trios, and pens." 



