426 



POULTRY CULTURE 



Fig. 449. White Polish 

 Bantam cock^ 



literature to dwarf races of fowls in Europe centuries ago. The 

 name has been supposed to come from the province of Bantam, 

 in Java, whence, it is said, were imported 

 the first bantams to attract attention in Eng- 

 land. Neither record nor reliable tradition 

 gives any account of such importation. It 

 was apparently assumed in order to connect 

 dwarf fowls as a class with some place in 

 Asia, at the time when it was fashionable to 

 give Asiatic names to races of fowls. The 

 popular name for a dwarf fowl is (and un- 

 doubtedly was long before Asiatic fowls 

 came to Europe) "banty," which probably 

 comes from the Gaelic 

 banna, a jot, the small- 

 est portion of anything, and from which were 

 derived the Gaelic bean, bian, little, small. ^ 



Economically bantams are of little impor- 

 tance. As layers they are, as a rule, much 

 inferior to large fowls. Only the largest spec- 

 imens of the largest varieties are desirable for 

 poultry. Most varieties are rather delicate, 

 especially when young. 

 Common bantams — 

 that is, those of no par- 

 ticular breeding — are kept mostly as chil- 

 dren's pets. Standard-bred bantams are kept 

 by fanciers to whom the type appeals and 

 who take pleasure in working out the breed- 

 ing problems that it presents. Dwarf t\pes 

 of nearly all races of fowls have been pro- 

 duced, and there are a few quite unlike the 

 large types. Singularly, types unpopular in 

 large fowls are very likely to be popular in 

 bantams, while the dwarf types of popular 

 fowls attract comparatively little notice. The 



1 See Williams's Lexicon Cornu-Brittanicum, a Dictionary of the Gaelic Lan- 

 guage of Ancient Cornwall. ^ Photograph by Graham. 



Fig. 450. White Polish 

 Bantam hen 2 



Fig. 451. White Japan 

 ese Bantam cock ^ 



