242 FOWLS. Chap. VIL. 



degree the cross from the Hamburgh hen ; the other became a 

 gorgeous bird, so much so that an acquaintance had it preserved 

 and stuffed simply from its beauty. When stalking about it 

 closely resembled the wild Gfallus bankiva, but with the red 

 feathers rather darker. On close comparison one considerable dif- 

 ference presented itself, namely, that the primary and secondary 

 wing-feathers were edged with greenish-black, instead of being 

 edged, as in G. hanhiva, with fulvous and red tints. The 

 space, also, across the back, which bears dark-green feathers, 

 was broader, and the comb was blackish. In all other respects, 

 even in trifling details of plumage, there was the closest accord- 

 ance. Altogether it was a marvellous sight to compare this bird 

 first with a. bankiva, and then with its father, the glossy green- 

 black Spanish cock, and with its diminutive mother, the white 

 Silk hen. This case of reversion is the more extraordinary as 

 the Spanish breed has long been known to breed true, and no 

 instance is on record; of its throwing a single red feather. The 

 Silk hen likewise breeds true, and is believed to be ancient, 

 for Aldrovandi, before 1600, alludes probably to this breed, and 

 describes it as covered with wool. It is so peculiar in many 

 characters that some writers have considered it as specifically 

 distinct; yet, as we now see, when crossed with the Spanish 

 fowl, it yields offspring closely resembling the wild Gr. bankiva. 



Mr. Tegetmeier has been so kind as to repeat, at my request, 

 the cross between a Spanish cock and Silk hen, and he obtained 

 similar results ; for he thus raised, besides a black hen, seven 

 cocks, all of which were dark-bodied with more or less orange- 

 red hackles. In the ensuing year he paired the black hen with 

 one of her brothers, and raised three young cocks, all coloured 

 like their father, and a black hen mottled with white. 



The hens from the six above-described crosses showed hardly 

 any tendency to revert to the mottled-brown plumage of the 

 female Gr. bankiva: one hen, however, from the white Cochm, 

 which was at first coal-black, became slightly brown or sooty. 

 Several hens, which were for a long time snow-white, acquired 

 as they grew old a few black feathers. A hen from the white 

 Game, which was for a long time entirely black glossed with 

 green, when two years old had some of the primary wing-feathers 

 greyish-white, and a multitude of feathers over her body nar- 



