258 



FOWLS. 



Chap. VII. 



chickens are almost invariably black. According to Mr. Brent, black 

 and white Cochins occasionally produce chickens of a slaty-blue tint ; 

 and this same tint appears, as Mr. Tegetmeier tells me, from crossing- 

 white Cochins with black Spanish fowls, or white Dorkings with black 

 Minorcas.'' 59 A good observer 60 states that a first-rate silver-spangled 

 Hamburgh hen gradually lost the most characteristic qualities of the 

 breed for the black lacing to her feathers disappeared, and her legs 

 changed from leaden-blue to white ; but what makes the case remarkable 

 is that this tendency ran in the blood, for her sister changed in a similar 

 but less strongly marked manner ; and chickens produced from tins latter 

 hen were at first almost pure white, " but on moulting acquired black 

 collars and some spangled feathers with almost obliterated markings ; " so 

 that a new variety arose in this singular manner. The skin in the different 

 breeds differs much in colour, being white in common kinds, yellow in 

 Malays and Cochins, and black in Silk fowls ; thus mocking, as M. Godron 61 

 remarks, the three principal types of skin in mankind. The same author 

 adds that, as different kinds of fowls living in distant and isolated parts of 

 the world have black skin and bones, this colour must have appeared at 

 various times and places. 



The shape and carriage of the body and the shape of the head differ 

 much. The beak varies slightly in length and curvature, but incom- 

 parably less than with pigeons. In most crested fowls the nostrils offer a 

 remarkable peculiarity in being raised with a crescentic outline. The 

 primary wing-feathers are short in Cochins ; in a male, which must have 

 been more than twice as heavy as G. bankiva, these feathers were in both 

 birds of the same length. I have counted, with Mr. Tegetmeier's aid, the 

 primary wing-feathers in thirteen cocks and hens of various breeds; 

 in four of them, namely in two Hamburghs, a Cochin, and Game Bantam, 

 there were 10, instead of the normal number 9; but in counting these 

 feathers I have followed the practice of fanciers, and have not, included the 

 first minute primary feather, barely three-quarters of an inch in length. 

 These feathers differ considerably in relative length, the fourth, or the fifth, 

 or the sixth, being the longest ; with the third either equal to, or con- 

 siderably shorter than the fifth. In wild gallinaceous species the relative 

 length and number of the main wing and tail-feathers are extremely 

 constant. 



The tail differs much in erectness and size, being small in Malays and very 

 small in Cochins. In thirteen fowls of various breeds which I have exa- 

 mined, five had the normal number of 14 feathers, including in this number 

 the two middle sickle-feathers; six others (viz. a Caffre cock, Gold-spangled 

 Polish cock, Cochin hen, Sultan hen, Game hen, and Malay hen) had 16 ; 



59 « Cottage Gardener,' Jan. 3rd, 1860, 

 p. 218. 



60 Mr. Williams, in a paper read 

 before the Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 quoted in ' Cottage Gardener,' 1856, 

 p. 161. 



61 'De l'Espece,' 1859, p. 442. For 



the occurrence of black-boned fowls in 

 South America, see Koulin, in ' Mem. de 

 l'Acad. des Sciences,' torn. vi. p. 351 ; 

 and Azara, ' Quadruples du Paraguay,' 

 torn. ii. p. 324. A frizzled fowl sent to 

 me from Madras had black bones. 



