248 



FOWLS. 



Chap. VII 



Breeds: Individual Variability. — Fowls have been- exposed to 

 diversified conditions of life, and as we have just seen there 

 has been ample time for much variability and for the slow 

 action of unconscious selection. As there are good grounds for 

 believing that all the breeds are descended from Crallus banhiva 

 it will be worth while to describe in some detail the chief points 

 of difference. Beginning with the eggs and chickens, I will 

 pass on to the secondary sexual characters, and then to the 

 differences in external structure and in the skeleton. I enter on 

 the following details chiefly to show how variable almost every 

 character has become under domestication. 



-%7 S - — Mr. Dixon remarks 35 that "to every hen belongs an individual 

 peculiarity in the form, colour, and size of her egg, which never changes 

 during her life-time, so long as she remains in health, and which is as well 

 known to those who are in the habit of taking her produce, as the hand- 

 writing of their nearest acquaintance." I believe that this is generally 

 true, and that, if no great number of hens be kept, the eggs of each can 

 almost always be recognised. The eggs of differently sized breeds natu- 

 rally differ much in size ; but, apparently, not always in strict relation to 

 the size of the hen : thus the Malay is a larger bird than the Spanish, but 

 generally she produces not such large eggs ; white Bantams are said to 

 lay smaller eggs than other Bantams; 36 white Cochins, on the other hand, 

 as I hear from Mr. Tegetmeier, certainly lay larger eggs than buff Cochins! 

 The eggs, however, of the different breeds vary considerably in character; 

 for instance, Mr. Ballance states 37 that his Malay " pullets of last year 

 laid eggs equal in size to those of any duck, and other Malay hens, two or 

 three years old, laid eggs very little larger than a good-sized Bantam's 

 egg. Some were as white as a Spanish hen's egg, and others varied 

 from a light cream-colour to a deep rich buff, or even to a brown." The 

 shape also varies, the two ends being much more equally rounded in 

 Cochins than in Games or Polish. Spanish fowls lay smoother eggs 

 than Cochins, of which the eggs are generally granulated. The shell 

 in this latter breed, and more especially in Malays, is apt to be 

 thicker than in Games or Spanish; but the Minorcas, a sub-breed of 

 Spanish, are said to lay harder eggs than true Spanish. 38 The colour 

 differs considerably,— the Cochins laying buff-coloured eggs; the Malays 



35 ' Ornamental and Domestic Poul- 

 try,' p. 152. 



30 Ferguson on ' Eare Prize Poultry,' 

 p. 297. This writer, I am informed, 

 cannot generally be trusted. He gives, 

 however, figures and much information 

 on eggs. See pp. 34 and 235 on the 



eggs of the Game fowl. 



3 ? See < Poultry Book,' by Mr. Teget- 

 meier, 1866, pp. 81 and 78. 



38 ' The Cottage Gardener,' Oct. 1855, 

 p. 13. On the thinness of the eggs of 

 Game-fowls, see Mowbray on Poultry,. 

 7th edit., p. 13. 



distil 



