42 POULTRY BREEDING 
mottled black and white in’color. They are good layers 
and hardy. They have white earlobes and yellow skin. 
The standard shape is the same as the Leghorns. 
English Class.—This class is composed of breeds which 
had their origin in England. These are the Dorkings, 
three varieties—White, Silver-Gray and Colored: Red- 
caps, one variety; Orpingtons, 10 varieties, only three 
of which have been admitted to recognition by the Amer- 
ican Poultry Association (Buff, Black and White). Be- 
sides these three we have three rose comb varieties in 
these colors, Spangled and Diamond Jubilee, more com- 
monly called Jubilee Orpingtons, having been given this 
name because they were introduced the year that the late 
Queen Victoria celebrated the jubilee year of her reign. 
Dorkings.—These are no doubt the oldest pure-bred 
breed of poultry with which we are acquainted. Some 
fanciful writers have tried to trace them back to the time 
of the Roman invasion of Britain. Columella described 
fowls very like the Dorkings of today, but there is no 
means of connecting them with the Dorkings we now 
have. In Brown’s “Races of Domestic Poultry” we find 
the first authentic reference to Dorkings attributed to 
Bonington Moubray, who wrote a book on poultry breed- 
ing in 1815. In this book they were described under the 
name of “Darkings.” It seems that it is not even knewn 
when the “a” was changed to “o” in the name. Dorkines 
vary in weight and the style of the comb, a difference not 
allowed in any other breed, except a variation in the 
weights of Single Comb and Rose Comb Black Minoreas. 
White Dorkings.—This variety has a rose comb, while 
the other varieties have single combs. The White Derk- 
ing cock weighs 714 and the hen 6 pounds. The Silver- 
Gray Dorking cock weighs 8 and the hen 64 pounds; 
