194 . - A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 
Sebright bantams are in some ways the most artificial of all domestic breeds, for 
the cock has completely assumed the characters of the hen. The markings of the 
plumage, the short, pointed hackles and the short, stiff, central tail-feathers, show an 
extreme specialization and departure from the ancestral conditions. In the silky fowls, 
barbicels are almost absent from the feathers, giving the plumage a loose, silky or 
hair-like texture. In the best-known breed of this race the feathers are pure white, 
while the skin, the connective tissue separating the muscles and the periosteum covering 
the bones, are a deep blue-black. When one has travelled in Malaysia and purchased 
these birds for the first time for the table, the sight of the black tissue on their flesh 
is most startling. They are nevertheless delicious eating. This character is not 
appreciated by the general purchaser at home, so these birds have little value for the 
market. In fact even in crosses with other races, while the silky character of the feather 
is soon lost, the dark skin and other tissue is dominant and will do much to depreciate 
the selling value of the crosses. 
Frizzled fowl, or ‘ pine-apple hens” as they are called in China, show the character 
of every feather, even the flight feathers and tail, turning outward from the body. One 
sees them everywhere in the East, especially in India, and indeed they are adapted only 
to a warm, dry climate, owing to the lack of protection which their plumage affords, the 
rain and cold easily reaching their skin. A radical, inheritable alteration of structure 
is found in the rumpless fowls, in which the coccygeal vertebrae are absent. This 
character is dominant, so that by crossing, any race of rumpless fowls may be produced. 
Dumpies or creepers are fowls with legs so short that they can progress only with 
difficulty. Bantam is a term applied to very diminutive fowls of any race. Even 
Cochins have been bred down to less than a pound weight. The Japanese have a 
bantam with enormous tail and comb, very prominent breast and absurdly short 
legs. 
While shape is an easy factor to alter in the breeding of fowls, segregation of 
colour, unlike the condition existing in doves, offers much greater difficulty. The 
Japanese bantam is an unusual exception to the possibility of this localization of 
colour—the bird in general being white, while the tail is black. Darwin accounts for 
this by what he calls analogous variation, finding its explanation in the patterns and 
colours, not only of the direct ancestor, but of other members of the genus and related 
groups. Thus although the wild rock dove has not a white head, other species of 
doves have, and this character is easy to obtain by selective breeding. A white head 
is unknown among any species of wild Junglefowl or of pheasants, and a white-headed 
domestic race has never to my knowledge been obtained. 
The long-tailed fowls of Japan are popularly known as Yokohama, or Shinowara or 
Phoenix Fowls. Much has been written about this breed, and in this literature there is 
more of error than of truth. Authors have taken as their theses the supposed secret of 
production of the long tail-feathers by constant stroking and gentle pulling, stimulating 
in this way the abnormal growth. When one visits the home of these birds in Japan, 
it is found that such methods exist only in the ingenuity of their Caucasian inventors. 
As a matter of fact there is no secret connected with these birds, and their great length 
of feathers is as normal a product of development as the crests of other breeds. It has 
been proved that constant gentle pulling and stroking of the feathers has a certain effect 
