Black Hamburghs. 
387 
cultivator of this breed in its purity, having never we believe crossed his birds ; and as none have 
been more successful with it in the show-pen, it proves that careful and judicious breeding 
can do all that is necessary. At our request he has added the following very full notes on his 
favourite variety, which will fully convey to the reader the means by which his great success has 
been attained. 
“It is only within the last few years that Black Hamburghs have come into fashion. Indeed, 
ten years ago they were scarcely known out of Lancashire and the West Riding; but for all that 
they are by no means the ‘ recent invention ’ which the editors of some of our poultry periodicals 
would have us believe. I must confess to ignorance myself as to the origin and early history of 
the breed, but I am glad to be able to supply my deficiency with the following information which 
Mr. Teebay has very kindly sent me. He says : — 
“‘I have known the Black Hamburghs ever since I was quite a boy. I do not exactly 
recollect whether the Silver Mooneys or the Blacks were the first fowls I possessed, but I believe 
the Black Pheasants, as they were called here. Both kinds, and also the Golden Mooneys, I 
have been told by reliable persons were exhibited for prizes, such as copper kettles, & c., more 
than a hundred years before my time. I have yet somewhere in the attics of my house about a 
dozen prize copper kettles, and many others have been given away to friends. 
“ ‘ The Black Pheasants were not formerly so elegant in shape as they are now. Little regard 
was paid to symmetry, but the most weight was given to the resplendent green shade ; the ear-lobe 
was smaller than it is now, and the face a brilliant red. I have known Silver Mooneys produce 
chickens almost black, and as the old Blacks were exactly of the same shape as the old true 
Silver Mooney, I always thought one had sprung from the other. The true Silver Mooney chicken 
is almost black in one stage of its chicken plumage. The Black Pheasant formerly was much 
shorter in the leg, in fact, shorter in all its parts than the birds we now see. 
“‘I do not think that crossing with Spanish has caused this alteration; but that it has arisen in 
most cases from breeders paying more attention to shape than the old fanciers used to do. There 
is no doubt some strains have a little Spanish blood in them, but these are generally very coarse 
in comb, with dark faces, inclined to white below the eye, a drooping ear-lobe, and are not nearly so 
elegant a bird as the true kind.’ 
“As Mr. Teebay is admitted to be one of the best authorities upon all the varieties of 
Hamburghs, his most interesting letter is a conclusive answer to those who say that they are a 
cross between Golden-spangled Hamburghs and Spanish. No doubt some Black Hamburghs, or 
rather imitations of them, have been concocted in this way ; but the unfortunates who get any of 
these ‘ cross-breeds’ into their yards will not be long in discovering, in single combs and a general 
want of fixed characteristics, that they have not got the pure breed. 
“ It will be seen that Mr. Teebay considers them to be closely connected with the Silver 
Mooneys, and I think myself that that is very probable. However, as they can show a pedigree of 
considerably more than a hundred years, it is not of great importance from a practical point of 
view what was their origin in the first instance ; it is enough to know that they are now a firmly 
established breed, of great beauty and undoubted excellence. 
“ In shape they should be what their name implies — Hamburghs, and not rose-combed Spanish 
or Black Dorkings. They often appear at exhibitions in the guise of heavy, square, loose-feathered, 
Dorking-like birds, with coarse heads and combs ; or, on the other hand, long-legged, narrow- 
bodied, and squirrel-tailed, so that one is not surprised to hear the unitiated spectator remark, ‘ Why, 
they are very like Spanish.’ They should be real Hamburghs in shape, with prominent breasts, 
legs small-boned, taper, and short, though not so short as to give a dumpy look ; they should also 
