80 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



appearance of all this group has been well described as fol- 

 lows : — A close, compact, smallish-sized body, placed upon 

 legs of a good length ; the neck rather long, with a fine 

 head ; a large, upright-single comb in the cock, and in the 

 hen also large, but falling over on one side : and the cocks 

 have large sickle-shaped tails. Of course the colour of 

 plumage, legs, &c, are different in the several varieties, but 

 the general appearance is as here described. 



In Andalusians the plumage is slate-coloured, but on the 

 cock's neck and back it is dark purple or nearly black. The 

 birds are of a good size, are prolific layers of large white 

 eggs, are precocious as chickens, very hardy, bear confine- 

 ment well, are fair table birds when young, can be kept on 

 all fairly dry soils, and are non-sitters. In selecting birds 

 attention should be paid to size, to erectness of carriage ; 

 and any white on the face, which ought to be red, should be 

 avoided, as this indicates a cross with the black Spanish. 



Aseels. 



These are Indian game cocks, used in that country for 

 fighting purposes. They are good in flesh, but very poor 

 layers, and so savage that they are not to be recommended, 

 and, therefore, we need not say more respecting them. 



Bantams. 



The number of varieties of Bantams is very great, and 

 shows every sign of increasing, for experiments are constantly 

 being made in order to obtain miniature specimens of the larger 

 breeds. As a rule they are simply small specimens, though 

 in some cases some differences can be discerned. We only 

 give illustrations of two varieties, the white and the Japanese, 

 as all Bantams are purely " fancy " fowls, being popular 



