Cr&vecceurs. 
413 
have a proportionate number of mates. Hardly an egg will prove unprolific, and the chickens 
generally hatch some hours before their time. Scarcely any, perhaps, give so little trouble rearing. 
The breed bears confinement well, unless the fowls contract the vice of feather-eating, which all the 
French breeds are rather apt to do when penned up. We are much inclined to think this to be 
owing in part to the crest , which we have already seen in the case of Polish offers strong tempta- 
tions at certain seasons, or even when wet. 
As a farmer’s fowl the Houdan can hardly be surpassed, provided Brahmas or some other 
breed can be kept separate for hatching ; as the fecundity will rapidly fill the egg-basket, while 
the juicy flesh is not only all that can be wished, but the pinky and five-toed legs make the fowl 
very saleable. To keep up these valuable qualities, however, it is necessary to pay attention, as we 
have already so many times remarked, to selecting eggs for sitting from fine vigorous birds which 
are good layers, as well as to the points desired by exhibitors. For want of such precautions, and 
from continuous breeding during many successive generations for crest alone, the majority of 
exhibition strains of Houdans in England have of late greatly deteriorated in laying powers, 
according to a rigorous law we have already explained. As the Houdan can never be a first-class 
fowl merely from the fancier’s point of view, to lose these practical advantages is really to lose ail 
that makes the fowl worth having. 
We have already hinted at various Houdan crosses. Those with Brahmas or Cochins make 
capital fowls both as layers and for the table, maturing remarkably early. Some breeders have 
crossed Houdans with Dorkings to gain size, and we feel pretty certain that a Crystal Palace prize 
bird we once saw was so bred. The size, however, is usually gained at the expense of prolificacy, 
and the birds thus produced have a heavy and coarse appearance, which is entirely foreign to the 
Houdan when pure. 
A 
CREVECCEURS. — This breed has been tne longest known in England of all the French 
varieties, having been described by Messrs. Wingfield and Johnson many years ago. In confor- 
mation it is not so very different to the Houdan, but the comb consists of two horns rather than 
leaves, the crest and beard are fuller, and the whole make heavier ; in fact, the general appearance 
somewhat resembles a combination of the Polish with the full development of the Cochin. The head 
of the Crevecceur as bred in France is shown in Fig. 91 ; English breeders have bred the crest some- 
what fuller and more compact, but the general aspect of the head and the comb remains the same. 
Our first notes on Crevecoeurs are by Mr. W. Blinkhorn, who was, some years ago, the most 
successful breeder of this variety. 
“ Crevecoeurs have been described as black or black and white variegated. This variegation, 
sometimes white and sometimes golden, is most noticeable in the crest, and after that tn the 
hackles and saddles, but I have never seen it in other parts of the birds. I scarcely remember a 
bird that did not show it more or less the second year, and as they grow older it increases. I have 
seen good combs of both varieties-two-horned and antlered— and think both are common to the 
breed ; but the former are more general and I think preferable. 
“They are decidedly late in beginning to lay ; their eggs are large, but I have not found them 
by any means frequent layers. As to their sitting properties I should pronounce them to be 
decidedly non-sitters. I have had a large number through my hands, but had only one that 
showed the slightest inclination to sit. 
“ M y experience with Crevecoeurs has been somewhat unsatisfactory. My poultry-ground is 
situated in the moist climate of south-west Lancashire, and it is on clay. It may therefore be 
particularly ill-suited for this breed of fowls, though Game fowl, Hamburghs, and Brahmas do well 
