THE POULTBY BOOK. 
83 
their size and aptitude to fatten from the large Surrey or Sussex fowl ; their fifth 
toe and rose-comh, when present, from the old white Dorking, which has been crossed 
with the four-toed Sussex or Surrey fowl, and has produced a breed superior in 
size and quality to almost any other as a table-fowl. This composite character of 
the breed is perhaps the reason why so much care is required to produce them true 
to colour, or even in many cases to comb. It is singular that the English table- 
fowl, the Dorking, and the French table-fowl, the Creve-coeur, should both be, 
as they evidently are, composite breeds, produced in a long series of years, 
during which time the object of the rearers has certainly been to obtain a first- 
class table-fowl by breeding from any bird whose size or form was likely to improve 
the original stock. 
Leaving the determination of the vexed question of the origin of the 
coloured Dorking to the consideration of poultry archseologists, we enter at 
once on the consideration of the characters of this breed. In all varieties of 
Dorkings size is a most important consideration, and in the coloured breed 
unquestionably the most important. The body in both sexes should be 
large, deep, and plump ; in the cock it should almost form a square 
when viewed from the side. The back and the breast should be very 
broad. The legs in all the varieties should be white in colour, stout in 
form, and perfectly free from feathers, and the cock should be spurred on the 
inside of the leg — not, as is occasionally seen, on the outer side. The feet 
must be five-toed, and the extra toe should be well separated from the others 
and turned upwards. The head should be proportionate to the size of the bird ; 
the wattles well developed. The comb in the Dorking varies considerably; it 
may be either single or rose. Single-combed cocks should have the comb erect 
and free from side sprigs ; but there is a great tendency in many good birds to have 
the combs lopping over to one side. In the rose-combed birds, the combs should 
be square in front, and ending in a raised peak behind, without any depression 
in the centre. The appearance of the Dorking cock is greatly improved by his 
possessing a large, well-formed tail, which should not droop, but be carried well 
over the back. In the classes for coloured Dorkings at the poultry shows, the 
exact marking as to colour is not regarded as a matter of moment, provided 
always the birds match in the pen. But of late years the breed known as Silver 
Greys have come into high estimation, as they conjoin many of the good qualities 
of the coloured breed with the beauty of plumage possessed by those birds that 
are regarded more especially as ornamental poultry. In this latter variety the 
colour of the plumage is important, as a single white feather in the breast or tail 
of the cock is held as a disqualification in a show-pen. It is necessary, therefore, 
to give the characteristics of this breed as distinct from those of the ordinary 
coloured or grey birds. 
In size, the Silver Greys rarely equal the coloured breeds. The form of the body, 
however, should be identically the same ; and the like remark also applies to 
the comb, wattles, feet, &c. 
