14 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



China and Malay blood on the old English stock. However, the 

 plumage of the fowls so produced was variegated, and the color of 

 the shanks also varied, being white, yellow, green or blue in different 

 individuals. Some of the birds were feathered on shanks, and the 

 majority carried five toes, the extra digit being inherited from the 

 English Dorking breed. "They are domestic," wrote the originator, 

 "and not so destructive to gardens as smaller fowls." 



Chittagong Fowls as They Were Illustrated in Dr. J. J. Kerr's Poultry Book. 

 Publisher] in Philadelphia, 1851. 



The public was receptive to the idea of a large, docile, yet pro- 

 ductive breed, and stock was shipped into "most of the New England 

 states and western New York." The demand for Dr. Bennett's 

 "Plymouth Rocks" was reported by him as greater for the first season 

 or two than for any other breed which he kept at the time. The 

 crucial test, however, always is in the ability of stock to breed true 

 enough to transmit with some certainty and satisfaction the charac- 

 ters and qualities of the breed. This is true even in new varieties, once 

 they are ofifered to the public; for the very continuation of a breed 

 depends upon it being sufficiently well established to reproduce itself. 



