72 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



well known, however, to the middle-age curiosity col- 

 lectors. Aldrovandi, in discoursing on them, says: 

 "But the hens which Longolius calls pigmy, and ren- 

 ders into German ' Kriel,' those, as I have just said, 

 exist here and there, creep along the ground by limping 

 rather than walking." Again, he says : " Although we 

 declared that we would not give another figure of com- 

 mon hens, we have thought right, on account of their 

 rarity to exhibit one of the pigmy or dwarf sort, which 

 we have said that many people unadvisedly consider as 

 the Hadrian hen, (of classical authors,) although it be- 

 longs to the same kind. But this hen was all black ex- 

 cept the larger feathers of the wings, which were whitish 

 at the tips ; she had likewise white spots all round about 

 her neck emulating the full moon, and lastly, a round 

 spot of an ochrey color encircled her eyes. Her head 

 was topknotted. The wattles and comb, which was 

 . very small, were of a rather intense red ; the feet were 

 bright yellow ; the claws small, exceedingly white." 



Aldrovandi also gives a rich collection of three-footed, 

 four-footed, double-headed, and double-bodied fowls, that 

 occurred to him in the course of his laborious researches. 



MONGRELS AND BARN-DOOR FOWLS. 



It is now generally conceded, and the best judges 

 agree, fhat there is no such variety as the " barn-door 

 fowl," unless we appropriate that name to some one 

 variety which has hitherto been scarcely distinguished 

 with precision ; and that the collections usually known 

 under the name, are merely a rabble of mongrels, in 

 which the results of accidental or injudicious crosses 

 have become apparent in all kinds of ways. 



From observation and strict inquiry, it is now 

 regarded as an established principle, that the most 

 careful breeding will only fix, and make prominent, cer- 

 tain peculiar features, or points, which are observed in 

 certain families of the same aboriginal species, or sub- 

 species ; and that the whole world might be challenged 

 to bring evidence that any permanent intermediate 

 variety of quadruped or bird, generated by the crossing 



