358 



POULTRY CULTURE 



Fig. 344. Single-Comb Buff Leghorn cock 



(Photograph from owner, H. M. Lamon, 



Washington, D. C.) 



exhibition were found a 

 few years since. About 

 1888 the modem Buff 

 Leghorn was introduced 

 into England from Den- 

 mark, with the color in 

 very crude condition. The 

 Danish stock undoubtedly 

 came originally from Italy, 

 where buff or yellow birds 

 are often seen, but of its 

 history in Denmark little 

 is known. It is said ^ that 

 in England the Buff Co- 

 chin was at once effec- 

 tively used to improve 

 the color. The first birds 



brought to America were, with few exceptions, far from being of 

 the uniform shade of golden buff 

 required by the Standard. Both 

 white and black were prevalent 

 in wings and tail, and the males 



i Though the authority for this is good 

 and in accord with common opinion, my 

 own experience with Buff Leghorns leads 

 me to doubt whether, if Cochins were used, 

 their influence extended to all the stock or 

 was as great as was supposed. The first 

 importations from Denmark to England 

 were made in 1888. The cross with the 

 Cochin was made in that year or in the 

 following year. The first importation to 

 America was made in 1890. In 1893 I 

 bought eggs of this strain, and bred it until 

 1899. In the seasons of 1894, 1895, ^"'^ 

 1896 I reared, in all, about 1500 birds of 



this variety, and. in that number no specimen appeared which at all suggested 

 Cochin ancestry. The birds were unmistakably Leghorns, the variations in shape 

 often suggesting an admixture of Game blood and sometimes of blood of the 

 Sussex type, while the colors suggested combinations of White, Brown, and Pile 

 Leghorns, and Red Sussex. It is hardly credible that undesirable Cochin char- 

 acteristics could be so completely eliminated in so short a time. 



Fig. 345. Rose-Comb Buff Leghorn 



hen. (Photograph from owner, H. J. 



Fisk, Falconer, New York) 



