26 
THE AMERICAN 
THE HEN, 
Head: Small and neat in shape, and, in color, rich brown: 
— Eyes, mild, clear and bright: — Beak, yellow or horn-color, 
stout and nicely curved. 
Comb: Single, small, fine, low in front, erect, perfectly 
straight, with small and well defined serrations, free from side 
sprigs, and, in color, brilliant red. 
Wattles and Ear-lobes: Wattles, small, neatly rounded 
and fine in texture: — Ear-lobes, well developed, fine in tex- 
ture, and in color, brilliant red. 
Neck: Short, carried forward, tlie lower part full and broad, 
the hackle reaching well over the shoulders, and in color, a 
rich reddish gold, witli a broad black stripe down the middle 
of the feathers. 
Back: Broad, flat and short, with the cushion rising from the 
middle thereof, and partially covering the tail. 
Breast and Body: Breast, broad and full, and carried 
rather low, the plumage a rich brown and distinctly and liand- 
somely penciled with darker brown, the penciling being well 
developed over the breast, and reaching well up towards the 
throat: — Body, broad and deep behind, the general plumage of 
which is brown, and distinctly penciled with a deeper brown. 
Wings: Small, the primaries well folded under the second- 
aries, so as to be concealed when the wings are closed, the 
wing-bows nearly covered by the breast-feathers and the points 
well concealed in the fluff: — primaries, a very dark brown or 
blackish-brown, — secondaries, the inner-web a blackish-brown, 
and the outer-web a blackish-brown, penciled with a lighter 
brown, — the color and penciling of the wing-coverts quite sim- 
ilar to the same characteristics of the breast. 
Tail: Short, small, carried horizontally, and almost hidden 
in the cushion; — the main tail-feathers black. 
Fluff: Very abundant and soft, standing out about the 
