41 



well as feather. They are of various colours, the most esteemed 

 being dark partridge, red-grouse, wheatens, greys, blacks, duns, 

 whites, and spangles ; a well-known poultry judge once stated he 

 had seen and bred black -breasted reds, but certainly these were not 

 hennies. The colour of eye, beak and legs should correspond as 

 near as possible with the plumage ; having been kept more free from 

 crosses than other strains of game, they retain the original charac- 

 teristics of the breed, generally run smaller, but sometimes weigh 

 as much as seven or eight pounds, and probably carry more meat 

 with less offal than any breed whatever, which for quality, rich- 

 ness of flavour, delicacy and nutritive properties is second to none. 

 They are the most prolific layers of the whole game race ; they 

 cannot lay any claim to that beauty of plumage so conspicuous in 

 other strains of game, and this seems their only drawback, for what 

 they lack in ornament they make up in utility, and for the use of 

 the cottager or those who breed fowls for their own table they are 

 worth all the new so-called best breeds that have been introduced of 

 late. There has been a great deal written in the public press pn 

 the enormous quantity of eggs and poultry imported, and we heed 

 scarcely wonder at this, when the whole country is filled with huge 

 useless fowls, each of which will eat as much food as three of our 

 old English breeds and not lay any more eggs ; the cottager cannot 

 afford to buy food for such ' gormandising machines,' so throws up 

 poultry-keeping in disgust. If we were to return to rearing our old 

 English game for quality, Dorkings (not the great show Dorkings, 

 but the pure old breed) for quantity, and Minorcas or Hamburghs 

 for eggs, which will pick up enough to live on where Brahmas or 

 Plymouth Eocks would starve, we should soon get more eggs and 

 better quality of market poultry ; the Asiatic breeds all have too 

 much waste and offal, and wherever there is immense size there is 

 extreme coarseness to correspond, there being as much difference in 

 old English game and Asiatic as in the best and coarsest cuts of 

 beef in the London markets, yet the public pay the same price 

 for poultry whether good or bad, although there is scarcely any 

 meat that differs more in quality." 



MUFFS. 



Of muffs there are almost all colours ; their only difference con- 

 sisting in a thick muff or growth of feathers under the throat in both 

 cock and hen. They generally run large, and are strong in consti- 



