6 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



useful and ornamental, to be used as the knowledge and 

 skill of the breeder may suggest. Here is a field wide 

 in extent and fascinating in character. The possibilities 

 of modifications of form and plumage, the effects pro- 

 duced by judicious selection of specimens, careful matings 

 of sexes, and wise crossings of breeds, make this both a 

 useful and delightful field to explore. When we consider 

 that the gigantic Light Brahma and the diminutive Game 

 Bantam, the pure White Leghorn and the jet-black Lang- 

 shan, the clean-headed Game and the tufted and bearded 

 Polish, and the almost innumerable variety of markings — 

 lacings, barrings, spanglings — the different breeds display, 

 all came from one variety of fowls, we begin to realize 

 somewhat of the extent and interest of this field. Some 

 of the best crosses for practical purposes, which have yet 

 been made, are the White Leghorn and Light Brahma, 

 the Brown Leghorn and Partridge Cochin, the Black 

 Spanish and Plymouth Rock, the Colored Dorking and 

 Dark Brahma, and the White Leghorn and Langshan. 

 The products of these crosses have been excellent fowls 

 for general purposes — good layers, good table fowls, etc. 

 Sixth Class. This class is a wide one. To it belong 

 those fowls which are preeminent for beauty of plumage, 

 elegance of figure, and the possession of crests and ap- 

 pendages which excite admiration or awaken wonder in 

 the beholder. Here we find the beautiful Polish fowls, 

 with their rose-like crests and depending beards; the clean 

 cut, high-stationed, glistening-plumaged Games, which are 

 the creme de la creme of the fancy; the little Bantams, 

 with their important ways, the incarnation of strut and 

 pomposity, of whose appearance one can never tire ; 



