446 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
In the course of many years’ experience in breeding, and intercourse with other amateurs, we 
have frequently met with birds, of all the Asiatic races especially, in which the neck-hackles had a 
tendency to twist out of the true sweeping line, towards the back of the neck, a defect well known 
among Cochin breeders, and less so among Brahma fanciers, as a “twisted hackle.” The fault has 
a strong disposition to be hereditary ; and the tendency to it is very plainly the same which, 
exaggerated and developed, produces the Frizzled fowl. Indeed, by selecting specimens with such 
twisted hackles, and breeding them together, birds partially frizzled would almost certainly be 
produced. 
Frizzled fowls occasionally vary in other characteristics, though usually presenting neat rose- 
combs and short dark legs. The peculiarity is in the plumage, every feather being curled back in 
the wrong direction, as if the bird had been roughly stroked the wrong way, and presenting a most 
grotesque appearance. The tail-feathers are not, of course, thus re-curved, but the webs are loose 
and disconnected. The most usual colour shown in this country is white, but we have seen very 
handsome brown or rather partridge-coloured specimens, and also black. The last colour is to our 
fancy the handsomest of all, and we have accordingly selected it for illustration in the plate, which 
renders the birds to the life, all previous illustrations of this breed which we have seen being the 
merest caricatures. 
Frizzled fowls have the general reputation of being delicate and rather susceptible to cold or 
wet, but it is singular that most people who have actually kept and bred the fowl for any length of 
time are of a different opinion, as are persons who reside where it is indigenous. Mrs. Taylor, 
of Ardgillan Castle, Balbriggan, Ireland, who has kept this breed for many years, has kindly 
sent the following : — 
“ I have kept White Frizzled fowls now for seven or eight years, and think them a most useful 
and profitable variety. They are always the first to lay in the autumn, which I attribute to their 
early moulting — my poultry-woman writes me from home that they are all featherless already 
(June ioth). They are also excellent mothers, and from their feathers being nothing but fluff, they 
always seem to keep their eggs warmer than other hens when sitting. 
“ They have a very marked power to reproduce their peculiarities — the turned-back feather 
and rose-comb — even when several times crossed with other breeds I have also remarked that 
although the parent birds in my pure-bred runs are all white, a jet-black chicken has often been 
produced ; which fact, and the observations of Captain Tollemache in the Mauritius, lead me to 
believe that the Black is not ar. original variety. 
“ The first I ever possessed came from a farmer in Westmeath, and at that time they 
were common both in that county and in Cavan. I have since tried to obtain some from that 
locality, but they are nearly extinct, and I could not meet with any true-bred specimens. My 
first birds were not pure white, but each feather had a very delicate pencilling of grey, which 
Captain Tollemache states is the general colour of the Mozambique fowl in the Mauritius. 
By always selecting the whitest birds, my stock is now pure white, but a black chick still 
occasionally appears. 
“ I consider them the most valuable fowls I possess. They are excellent for the table, and 
even a hen two years old gives very white meat, and much more tender than that of any other 
variety. The smallness of their bones also makes them desirable for the table. They seldom or 
never want to sit, and are, to my taste, very ornamental. They are very hardy, and the chicks 
easily reared. They are slow in feathering, and therefore require to run along with the hen, but, on 
the other hand, there is no harbour for vermin.” 
Temminck states that the Frizzled fowl is found throughout Southern Asia, Java, Sumatra, 
