52 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



marked in these old characters. The fleshy rose comb 

 of the golden Hamburgh terminating in a sharp point 

 behind, like the corner of a cocked hat turning upwards, 

 and which is seen in no other variety of fowl, is well 

 described. 



A writer in the London Agricultural Gazette, of 

 October 14th, 1848, in speaking of this breed, says : 

 " The silver (Hamburgh) fowls are worthy of notice, 

 both on account of their beauty and productiveness ; 

 they are small- bodied, have short blue legs, a very 

 pretty head, with a full comb, and a remarkably short 

 bill, rounded, and shaped somewhat like a sparrow's ; 

 their color white, with very regular black dots of 

 moons on their wings and tail. They lay well ; mine 

 commenced early in February, and are laying now 

 (Oct. 3) ; they do not show any inclination to sit, but 

 in a hatch their eggs are very productive. I have had 

 fourteen chicks out of fifteen eggs. It is necessary to 

 keep a game hen or two, to perpetuate the breed (by 

 hatching the eggs, which they will not do for them- 

 selves.) I find rice, at 12s. to 14s. per cwt., soaked all 

 night in water, and then rolled in Indian meal, a very 

 economical and fattening food, occasionally mixed 

 with a little barley. My hens would have commenced 

 laying earlier in the season, if their roosting place had 

 been warmer." 



Moubray, to whom the merits, at least, of origi- 

 nality and practical knowledge ought to be conceded, 

 appears to have been acquainted only with the Eng- 

 lish stock of this breed. He says of the Coral, or 

 Bolton Greys, " This variety, apparently the crack 

 breed of their vicinity, but entirely unknown in the 

 metropolis, is described by the Rev. Mr. Ashworth, 

 Vicar of Tamworth, as follows: — ' Small- sized, short 

 in the leg, and plump in the make. The color of the 

 genuine kind, invariably pure white in the whole 

 lappel of the neck ; the body white, thickly spotted 

 with bright black, sometimes running into a grizzle, 

 with one or more black bars at the extremity of the 



