400 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
obnoxious part has been pretty nearly banished, and care should be taken to keep it so. I also 
like them with good full beards ; and find as a very general rule that if birds with good full crests 
and beards are bred from, the progeny are the same. 
Regarding fea-ther, the more darkly-marked birds should be chosen for the stock-pen, as 
there is always a tendency to breed a little lighter, and if lightly-marked ones are bred from, the 
progeny is generally too light to be of any good. The style of marking should be that described 
above, and should be very heavy and deep in character, but sharp and cleanly cut. It is not at all 
necessary to breed from two sets, as good birds of both sexes can be bred from one pen ; in fact, I 
would say again, that I look upon the plan of breeding from two sets — one for cockerels and 
another for pellets — to be altogether wrong in any breed. Care must, of course, be taken to choose 
birds free from any deformities, such as crooked beaks, or round or crooked backs, &c. Polands 
are particularly liable to these blemishes, and readily perpetuate them, probably from weakness of 
constitution or in-breeding. Fine, healthy, moderately perfect birds on both sides will almost 
always breed well. I prefer to breed a young cock with hens in this as all other varieties. 
“ April is a good month to hatch Polands, as they have then all the fine weather before them. 
At that time, if on dry soil, they are as easy to rear as most chickens, with proper care. They are 
no use hatched late, as they never then grow their proper exhibition feathers. I may observe that 
the difference in the feathering of a healthy strong chicken and a weak one is something wonderful. 
It is, therefore, necessary to keep the chickens in vigorous health throughout to obtain the full 
development of the crest, for a badly-kept chicken of the very best blood will never grow a good 
crest. In fact, they will often keep on their chicken-crest for a great length of time after their other 
plumage has been changed, so that it is most essential to keep them well up to the mark from 
hatching, and above all things to keep them dry, as above stated. 
“ The chicks look very pretty when hatched, and so far as the size of the crest goes, their 
quality can at once be pretty accurately known, for the size of the little projecting fluffy poll differs 
very much, as the crests will do in the full-grown birds ; that is, if the crest is properly grown and 
not stunted, as mentioned above. The beard also is well developed, or otherwise. In the Golden, 
the colour when hatched is a smudgy black-and-brown mixture ; in the Silvers a smudgy grey ; and 
the darkest chicks generally make the best-laced fowls. In the first feather the marking is very 
indistinct and patchy, and it is only in the second feathering that the quality of the plumage can 
be ascertained ; the marking then becomes distinct, and the crest also shows a lacing ot black and 
white or black and brown, as the case may be. 
“ All Polish are pretty good layers, and as a rule do not sit.” 
Figs. 89, 90, representing feathers of Silver-spangled Polish, and which are carefully drawn 
from specimens supplied from Mr. Beldon, will serve all necessary purposes for both varieties. The 
accuracy of marking in really fine specimens is extraordinary, and far superior in effect to the old- 
fashioned spangling. That a really spangled breed — that is, a breed spangled rather than laced — 
did at one time exist, is certain, but diligent search for many years has not rewarded us by bringing 
to light a single specimen. Even the old descriptions quoted in various works state that these 
spangled birds were laced on the wings ; and hence it appears highly probable that the superior 
beauty of this marking led to its being increasingly cultivated by fanciers, until the spots or 
spangles had entirely disappeared, except at the ends of the sickles. None but laced Polish are 
ever shown at the present day, and only the moons at the ends of the cock’s sickles now remain 
to show the original type of the variety. The spangling in these old Polands was never perfectly 
round like that of the Lancashire Mooneys, but more resembled the crescentic character of the 
marking in the Yorkshire Pheasant fowls. 
