256 



FOWLS. 



Chap. VII. 



breeds, which, from the hen having a small crest, are called 

 lark-crested, " a single upright comb sometimes almost entirely 

 takes the place of the crest ia the male." 54 From this latter 

 case, and from some facts presently to be given with respect 

 to the protuberance of the skull in Polish fowls, the crest 

 in this breed ought perhaps to be viewed as a feminine cha- 

 racter which has been transferred to the male. In the Spanish 

 breed the male, as we know, has an immense comb, and this 

 has been partially transferred to the female, for her comb is 

 unusually large, though not upright. In Game-fowls the bold 

 and savage disposition of the male has likewise been largely 

 transferred to the female ; 55 and she sometimes even possesses 

 the eminently masculine character of spurs. Many cases are 

 on record of hens being furnished with spurs ; and in Germany, 

 according to Bechstein, 56 the spurs in the Silk-hen are sometimes 

 very long. He mentions also another breed similarly charac- 

 terised, in which the hens are excellent layers, but are apt to 

 disturb and break their eggs owing to their spurs. 



Mr. Layard 57 has given an account of a breed of fowls in 

 Ceylon with black skin, bones, and wattle, but with ordinary 

 feathers, and which cannot "be more aptly described than by 

 comparing them to a white fowl drawn down a sooty chimney ; 

 it is, however," adds Mr. Layard, " a remarkable fact that a male 

 bird of the pure sooty variety is almost as rare as a tortoise-shell 

 tom-cat." Mr. Blyth finds that the same rule holds good with 

 this breed near Calcutta. The males and females, on the other 

 hand, of the black-boned European breed, with silky feathers, 

 do not differ from each other ; so that in the one breed black 

 skin and bones, and the same kind of plumage, are common to 

 both sexes, whilst in the other breed these characters are con- 

 fined to the female sex. 



At the present day all the breeds of Polish fowls have the great 

 bony protuberance on their skulls, which includes part of the 

 brain and supports the crest, equally developed in both sexes. 



54 Dixon, ' Ornamental and Domestic 

 Poultry,' p. 320. 



55 Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that 

 'Game hens have been found so com- 

 bative, that it is now generally the 

 practice to exhibit each hen in a sepa- 



rate pen. 



56 ' Naturgeschichte Deutschlands,' 

 Band iii. (1793), s. 339, 407. 



» On the Ornithology of Ceylon in 

 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. History,' 

 2nd series, vol. xiv. (1854), p. 03. 



inform s 



