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would probably improve them. They were usually known as 

 " Smocks." 



CUCKOOS. 



The cuckoo-breasted cuckoos are blueish-grey in colour, banded 

 across the feathers with darker or lighter shades, something similar 

 to the colour seen at poultry shows in Plymouth Eocks or Cuckoo 

 Dorkings. Most of the birds I am acquainted with of this colour are 

 north country bred, they should have red eyes and generally white 

 or yellow legs, the hens of course resemble the cocks in colour; the 

 markings, &c., should be as even as possible throughout the plumage, 

 in different birds the colour varies, some being almost white and 

 others blueish-grey in ground colour, while the markings vary from 

 blueish-grey to black. Yellow cuckoos have a buff ground colour. 



Spangle-breasted spangle-red, or pheasant-breasted pheasant- 

 reds, as they were often called, are, I believe, almost extinct or 

 bred very rarely at the present time. They were fowls of very 

 attractive and brilliant plumage consisting of red and golden-red 

 spotted and marked with black, almost after the fashion of a " Golden 

 Spangled Hamburg," of whom they are said by some to be the 

 ancestors, and some writers say that the "Golden Mooney" and 

 " Pheasant Malay" owe their existence to the same source. Their 

 markings were very attractive, but from being less successful in the 

 cock-pit they gradually became neglected, although if any be in ex- 

 istence now, they would probably become popular in the show-pen 

 on account of their plumage. 



HBNNY GAME. 



The remarks given here on " henny game " are from the pen of 

 the greatest breeder of that variety at the present time, a gentleman 

 to whom I am indebted for some of the most interesting information 

 contained in this little work. 



" If there is any truth in the theory of our game breeds coming 

 from the wild fowls of India, then the Ceylon jungle fowl, being partly 

 hen-feathered, suggests itself as a likely ancestor, besides some of 

 the pheasant tribe. On the other hand we had game fowls long 

 before having any intercourse with that country. Gilbert and other 

 officers have seen henny-cocks fought in India. They were formerly 

 very plentiful in Wales and Cornwall, and there is an old account 

 of a main, fought at Pontefraet in the year 1670, hen-cocks v. long- 

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