CHAPTER XVI. 



Miscellaneous Breeds. 



These are a diminutive white fowl, weighing from three to five pounds, 

 heavily crested, feather-legged, and vulture-hooked.- They. were first imported 

 in 1854 by a Miss Watts df Hampatead, England, from Constantinople, where 

 they were called Serai-Laook, or Fowls of the Sultan. They seem not to have 

 been abundant in Turkey, as Miss Watts failed to secure a second consignment. 

 The pwre Sultans of to-day, are thei'efore descendants of the original trio im- 

 ported to Hampstead, and are hence' not very abundant, while, they have 

 been closely in-bred. Their chief value is, like that of the Bantams, for orna- 

 ment and for children's pets. 



SILKIES. 



The peculiarity of these fowls is that the webs of the feathers are separated, 

 so as to give the plumage the appearance of hair, rather than of feathers. The 

 quill feathers of the wings have the filaments so much divided as to be useless 

 for flight, and the tail, in the best specimens, is but little more developed than 

 that of the Cochins. The comb is usually depressed and warty, and, with the 

 wattles, of a deep purple color. The ear-lobes are generally bright blue, the legs 

 and feet blue, as also the skin and the periosteum, or bone covering, a, fact 

 which makes these fowls quite undesirable for the table. The plumage of the 

 Silkies is clear white ; they possess a crest, and a fifth toe, the shanks and outer 

 toes being feathered. The carriage of the birds is rather low and Cochin-like. 



The loose plumage of the Silky fowls gives them the appearance of greater 

 weight than they possess ; the hens weighing generaUy but two pounds, -and the 

 cocks two and a half. On account of their smaU size they are frequently classed 

 with the Bantams, and they are chiefly valuable to lovers of the curious, or to 

 those who wish to domesticate the smaller wild fowl, as quails, pheasants etc. 

 For this purpose they are exceptionally valuable, being very docUe, excellent 

 mothers, and able, on account of their loose plumage, to brood a large number 



The Silkies have long been cultivated. We find an account of a "wooly" 

 fowl, which was undoubtedly the Silky, in the works of Conrad von Gesner, 

 who wrote at Zurich during the sixteenth centurr, and again in those d 

 MdrovanduB, a century later. 



riBO] 



