178 
The Australasian Book of F^oultry. 
exhibit l)lack legs and feet, and this is extremely difficult to breed out ; even if an occasional Black is 
produced with yellow legs, on being bred from the progeny in nearl\- all instances revert to the black leg 
again. Possibly the art of breeders will overcome this present difficulty, and in the near future Black Rocks 
will take their place amongst the recognised colours of the Plymouth Rock for exhibition. 
The Pea-combed Barred is comparatively of recent introduction, being similar in all respects to the 
Single-combed Barred, with the exception of the comb, which is pea or triple, as in the Brahma and Indian 
Game. It is claimed that this variety is also an offshoot of the single-comb breed. That this is possible 
none could deny, but that it is more probable that some foreign cross has been introduced is the opinion of 
many. However, they are the ecjuals of the single-comb variety on general utility grounds, and now seem to 
be much f;ivoured by a great number of Fanciers in the United States of America, being admitted to the 
standard of perfection at the Convention of the American Poultry Association, held at Indianopolis (Ind.), 
Januiry 25th, 1SS8. 
For the following exhaustive and most valuable information on the origin, mating, and breeding of this 
grand utility breed of Poultry we are gratefully indebted to the kindness of Mr. H. Huntington Peck, 
" Hiawatha," Pascoe Vale, Victoria, Hon. Sec. of the Langshan, Orpington, Wyandotte, and Plymouth Rock 
Club, and so well known for many years as an enthusiastic breeder and admirer of that superlative all-round 
breed of Poultry, the Plymouth Rock. Mr. Huntington Peck writes : — 
" To our American cousins the world is indebted for this grand general utility Fowl, for it was right in the 
heart of the New England States that the breed was originated some forty to fifty years ago. The name is 
taken from the village of Plymouth Rock, in the State of Massachusetts, celebrated as the first landing place 
of the Pilgrim Fathers. The Rev. H. S. Ramsdell, of Putnam, Connecticut, who had a hand in moulding the 
breed, is responsible for the nomenclature, and, as befitted a minister, performed the christening ceremony, 
naming the breed somewhere about the year i860, evidently recognising thus early their fitness to lead the 
van of all American breeds, and so considering that they were worthy to bear the name of the place where 
the forefathers of the finest body of men in all America (the old New l-^nglanders) had first set foot on * 
American soil. A\'riting in the Pet Stock, Pij^coii ami Poiiltrv Bulletin for March, 1873, the Rev. Mr. 
Ramsdell says : — ' The modern Plymouth Rock was produced on the farm of the late Mr. Joseph Spaulding, 
of Putnam, Connecticut, which is situated about one mile from my own. I was intimately acquainted with 
Mr. Spaulding while he lived, and I was thus given an opportunity of knowing the facts of which I speak. 
Some thirty years since Mr John Giles (well-known to the Poultry world) introduced a Fowl into this vicinity 
called the Black Java. Its plumage was black and glossy, its size large (Mr. Giles said the pullets had 
sometimes reached eleven pounds). They were an unusually hardy bird, with a dark, slate -coloured, smooth 
leg, and the bottom of the foot yellow. They proved good layers, and of extra quality for the table — -not 
coarse, like most of the large-sized birds, but fine and juicy. I sold a few of these birds to a Mr. Thayer, of 
Pomfret, of whom Mr. George Clark, of Woodstock, Connecticut, purchased some— he supposed the same. 
Mr. Clark, passing Mr. Spaulding's yard one day, noticed his fine flock of Dominiques, and proposed 
bringing a few of his Javas over to cross with them to increase the size. Mr. Spaulding accepted the offer, 
and when the chickens were grown rejected the black ones, and those with double comb, reserving to breed 
from only the single-combed birds which retained the Dominique colour, or near it. They were usually of 
darker plumage than the Dominique. The leg sometimes resembled the Java — dark, with yellow feet — but 
were mostly yellow, with a slight streak of dark on the front of the shank, which with the feet are free from 
feathers. We received some eggs from this cross from Mr. Spaulding as a present, and purchased some 
fowls of him. Of the first produce one hen weighed over eight pounds, another reached nine pounds and 
three-quarters. A\'e soon had a fine flock of them. My opinion of the Fowl is that when bred pure as it 
came from the hands of Mr. Spaulding, it has few equals, and less superiors. True, they will now and then 
throw a black chick, but \vl- fmd they grow fewer each year, and, doubtless, will soon disappear altogether.' 
" All students and lovers of Rocks are deeply indebted to Mr. Lewis Wright for the enquiries instituted 
by him some years ago in America as to the origin of the breed, and the conclusions he comes to as the 
