36o 



POULTRY CULTURE 



Fig. 348. Single-Comb Black Leg- 

 horn pullet, Turtle Point farm, 

 Saratoga, New York. (Photograph 

 from owner) 



Black Leghorns (single-comb) 

 have been bred in this country 

 continuously since the early im- 

 portations, but never extensively. 

 In the dark subvariety of the 

 Brown Leghorn and the Black 

 Leghorn we have the stages of 

 the intensification of color from 

 the original type. 



Mottled Leghorns (single-comb), 

 the Anconas, are given in the 

 American Standard exactly the 

 same description for shape as Leg- 

 horns. They have distinctive color 

 characteristics only. The plumage 

 is black with each feather tipped 

 with white, giving an even mottling 

 of white on a black ground. According to most authentic accounts 

 the variety came to England from Italy, and thence to America. 



Note. The five foregoing are the Italian varieties, in which there is general 

 interest in America and which are commonly seen in our shows. Other varieties 

 of this class are seen only occasionally and in small numbers. Some observations 

 on the relative values of these varieties, 

 and on certain differences between them, 

 are therefore better presented here than 

 at the end of the list. In everything but 

 color the Leghorns as they came from 

 Italy were the same. In the American 

 Standard the descriptions for shape are 

 the same for all. Theoretically, the vari- 

 eties are identical except in color, but the 

 differentiation of a breed into varieties 

 inevitably tends to further differentiation 

 as the result of individual differences. In 

 addition, introductions of foreign blood 

 usually bring in different elements, and 

 though the purpose of these is to 

 strengthen a variety or breed character- 

 istic, and foreign characters are syste- Fig. 349. Ancona hen. (Photograph 

 matically bred out by fanciers, the use of from United States Department of 

 the fancier's culls, and indifferent selection Agriculture) 



