BRED AS, OR GUELDERS. 123 



" In those spangled birds that we have seen the analogy to the gold-spangled 

 Polish was equally close, the birds being as fully bearded as the most ardent 

 Polish fancier could desire, 



" The Cuckoo Ouelders have large, pendulous wattles like the black, and some 

 of the American birds of this.oolor have strongly feathered legs. 



" Ouelders are very good layers, and, as might be expected from their close 

 afSnity to the Polish, are none-sitters. They may be correctly characterized as 

 very useful fowls for family purposes, carrying a great amount of flesh on the 

 breast, but they are rather too small to furnish first-class fowls for the market. 

 They are not quite as large as the Houdtos, but are equally hardy. They are 

 abundant layers, of very fine, large fertile eggs. It would be difficult to say 

 which do better, the Houdan or Guelder chickens, I like this breed so well that 

 I class them next to the Houdans." 



The Guelders are not described in the American Standard of Excellence. 



Several other native breeds of fowls are described in French works on poul- 

 -try, but they are not generally sufficiently distinct from those described nor 

 widely enough propagated to justify an extended description here. Among these 

 may be mentioned the La Bresse, a fowl of mongrel type, which is largely reared 

 in the populous district of La Bresse in the north-eastern part of France, where 

 it is fattened by the cramming process. 



Another breed is that of Mans, which resembles the Creveccenrs, and is said 

 to be popular in the French markets. 



It will be noticed that the French breeds are generally table fowls, for which 

 purpose they are carefully bred, smallness of bone and offal, and high quality of 

 flesh, being far more sought after than uniformity of feather — a point ip which 

 English and American breeders might well take lessons. 



