CHAPTER VII 
BREEDS DESCRIBED 
LL standard-bred poultry is divided into 
A “classes,” of which the most common in 
America (because the most practical) are 
known as the American, Asiatic and Mediter- 
ranean classes. Four other common classes are 
Classification the English, Games, French, and 
of the Varieties Bantams. All breeds that do not 
of Fowl come under one of the classes named 
are prized mostly as novelties and are more or less 
impractical and undesirable for American purposes. 
In the following descriptions a few terms may 
call for explanation. For instance, the words 
“sitters”? and “‘non-sitters.” Many of the egg 
breeds have been bred for eggs so exclusively and 
continuously that they now very rarely exhibit a 
desire to incubate, and these are called the non- 
sitting varieties. Where we have applied the term 
‘* sitters > we do not mean to imply that the hens 
are especially persistent in desiring to incubate, but 
merely show the natural instinct to reproduce. 
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