CHAPTBE XXII. 



TKTJB HISTORY OF " FANNT FBEN." 



I WAS riding through Brookline, Mass., one fine after- 

 uo&n, on my round-about way home from a fowl-hunting 

 excursion in Norfolk County, when my attention was sud- 

 denly attracted by the appearance and carriage of the most 

 extraordinary-looking bird I ever met with in the whole 

 course of my poultry experience. 



I drew up my horse, and watched this curiosity for a few 

 minutes, with a fowl-admirer's wonder. It was evidently a 

 hen, though the variety was new to me, and its deportment 

 was very remarkable. Her plumage was a shiny coal- 

 black, and she loitered upon a bright-green bank in the 

 sunshine, at the southerly side of a pretty house tha,t stood 

 a few yards back from the road. She was rather long- 

 legged, and " spindle-shanked," but she moved about skip- 

 pingly and briskly, as if she were treading upon thin egg- 

 shells. Her feet were very delicate and very narrow, and 

 her body was thin and trim ; but her plumage — that glossy, 

 jet-black, brilliant feathery habit — was " too much " for my 



