38 POULTBY FAT TENING. 



shows, to La Mfeche nearly always falls the Prix 

 d'Honneur, or Champion Prize, for fatted fowls. It is 

 a black-plumaged fowl, with great length and massive- 

 ness of body, lending itself to early maturity, and 

 giving magnificent quality of flesh, with extreme 

 delicacy of skin. It has a neat head, surmounted 

 liy a peculiar small horned comb, and, like the Crfeve, 

 has dark or leaden-coloured legs, which fact shows 

 that the prejudice in favour of white-legged fowls for 

 table purposes has no real basis to warrant it. The 

 La Plfeche is only a moderate layer, and is pre- 

 eminently bred for its table qualities. 



La Beesse. The variety known by this name is 

 regarded as the best of all the French fowls for table 

 purposes. For flavour of meat and tenderness we 

 have never met its equal. It was decidedly in advance 

 of the Dorking which we had on the table at the same 

 time. Some of this might be due to feeding, for the 

 French fowl had been fed according to Gallic methods, 

 whilst the English fowl was prepared in the way 

 ^vhich is usually the case for our home market. The 

 flesh of the former really melted in the mouth, and 

 it was a rare treat. This breed is divided into two 

 varieties, namely, the grey and the black. The 

 former, which has really a pencilled marking, is 

 chiefly bred in the department of the Bourg, and 

 the latter, black in plumage, in the Arrondisement 

 of Louhans. Hens of both these varieties are good 

 layers, and very rarely sit. Eggs from the blacks 

 are much the larger, weighing nearly two and a half 

 ounces, whilst the eggs of the greys only weigh about 

 one and three-quarter ounces each, 



