TYPES, BREEDS, AND VARIETIES OF FOWLS 375 



Primitive crested types. An Asiatic laying-type fowl known 

 as the Siberian Feather-Footed is found in Russia. Almost nothing 

 is known of its history, except that at present it is a native Siberian 

 race. If, as some suppose, it is a very old race, it becomes doubly 

 interesting as the possible progenitor, or closely related to the pro- 

 genitor, of the Polish and Hamburgs. It is larger than the ordinary 

 Leghorn (the males weighing about 6 pounds and the females from 

 4 to 4^ pounds) and has the full form, large wings, and (in the 

 male) flowing tail of the Polish ; it has feathered legs and a small 

 rose comb, behind which is a small crest ; it is bearded and in 

 color is generally white or cuckoo. 



Pavlojf is the name of a Russian race, akin to the foregoing and 

 possibly derived from it, which greatly resembles the Polish. This 

 race is found throughout Russia and in Poland. It has the forked 

 comb and crest of the Polish, and the principal varieties, the 

 Golden and the Silver, have the colors and color pattern of the 

 Spangled Hamburgs. While the two color types mentioned are 

 best established, and are regarded as "pure," there are blacks 

 and blues, regarded as varieties, and a great variety of unestab- 

 lished color patterns. The race has not been studied as it should 

 be before any positive conclusions as to its relations to other races 

 are drawn, but in it and the foregoing are found (as nowhere else) 

 suggestions of most of the characteristics of native European 

 races of poultry not plainly derivable from Mediterranean and 

 Game stocks. 



For a long time after their introduction into England, Polish 

 were called Polands or Polanders. The White-Crested Black Polish 

 seem to have come first from Holland ; and, considering what is 

 known of the distribution of the type, it may reasonably be supposed 

 that their present name was the one which they bore on the Con- 

 tinent, and which indicated the country of their supposed origin.^ 

 Interest in this variety no doubt led to the introduction of others, 

 the general type (as has been shown) having been common on the 



1 Various explanations of the name are given on the theory that the race did 

 not come from Poland. One is that the name was given because of a fancied re- 

 semblance between the crest and the cap of the Polish soldier ; another, that 

 " Polish " is a corruption of " polled," and that the intention was to describe them as 

 polled fowls, — an absurd explanation, since the type is quite the reverse of polled, 

 but it has been seriously given times without number. 



