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Chapter XXVIII. 
MODERN BRITISH GAME. 
The Modern British Game Fowl, when seen in anything approaching perfection, has a most aristocratic 
appearance — reach, style, and proportion, with the brightest and most lustrous plumage, forming a combi- 
nation ditificult to surpass. The highest class specimens, as seen in the Show pen, are most noble looking 
birds, full of activity, gracefulness, and courage, and when in high condition have an extraordinary lustre on 
their plumage, unsurpassed, or even equalled, by any variety of domestic Poultry, and when well trained 
they show themselves off to advantage, having such a graceful action and noble carriage. They are 
tamer in disposition than most other varieties, and possess excellent qualifications for the table, carrying less 
offal and more breast meat in proportion to their size than the majority of other Fowls. 
During the past half-century the Game Fowl has undergone a complete transformation in shape and 
style. In the forties they were bred solely for the pit, and curious-looking specimens some of them were. 
Within our own knowledge, covering a quarter of a century, the change has been most marked. Twenty 
years ago we kept and bred Black-breasted Red-Muffs, Spangles, Blacks, Cuckoos, and Hennies, and a grand 
stamp of Fowl they were, full of quality and activity, and Game to the death. AVith the exception of the 
Black-breasted Muffs, they were mid-way between the present Modern Show type and the old-fashioned stamp 
of British Game. The Muffs were a much reachier, longer-headed, finer, and narrower-feathered breed, 
somewhat approaching the present Show (iame, though not quite so lengthy in thigh or as short in feather. 
We recall with pleasure the good feeling that existed among Game Fanciers of those days, when Shows 
were an almost unknown quantity ; and many pleasant Sunday afternoons have we spent inspecting and 
criticising other Fanciers' birds, which, without exception, was always accepted in the spirit in which it was 
intended. Alas ! vastly different to the feeling engendered nowadays, if one offers a remark at all disparaging 
to another E.xliihitni's birds. 
When Poultry Shows became general the ranks of breeders were considerably augmented, and this 
quickly led to a change in the appearance of the birds exhibited, but it was not until the eighties that the 
class of Fowl known as the Modern British Game made their appearance in the Colonies. 
They are now bred to such perfection in style, reach, and colour — both sexes, in all varieties — that it is 
almost marvellous what skill and perseverance will accomplish towards attaining an ideal. 
The breed did not arrive at its present state of perfection all at once. In Great Britain it was about the 
sixties that the change of type became markedly noticeable, and it was about that time that some of the 
finest specimens ever seen were produced, grand-bodied, stylish, reachy, shapely, close, hard-feathered birds 
being bred in that decade. The birds of that time were powerful in head and beak, fiery in eye, medium in 
length of limb, with plenty of muscular development; the thighs set on at a nice angle, that is, carried along 
the body a little, not stilty, as now too often seen in the Show specimen. The Brown-Reds were about the 
finest variety, such fine big, strapping fellows they were, and very powerful in limb ; sad to say, there are 
none now to equal them. The Black-breasted Light-Reds, Duckwings, and Piles also began to exhibit the 
modernising influence in a pronounced degree. Among the breeders in Great Britain who assisted to bring 
about this great change, the names of Messrs. Ward, Brierley, Douglas, Fielding, Martin, Burgess, the 
brothers Challoner, Entwistle, Woods, Matthews, etc., stand foremost. During the seventies the increase in 
length of head, neck, thigh, and shank became general, said to be obtained by crossing with the Malay; this 
is, however, denied by others. Anyhow, that matters little ; but at that time tlie iininistakable trade marks 
of the Ma!nv were only too frequently evident in the shape of coarse heads, coarse skin of face and throat, 
