THE POULTRY BOOK. 
119 
These are all the precautions I employ, and they prove amply sufficient to keep 
my birds in health, vigour, and beauty.” 
In concluding the present chapter on the Spanish fowl, a few remarks may be 
made on the different cross-bred birds owing their parentage to this race. It is 
difficult to imagine any cross that would not destroy the noble and truly aristo- 
cratic appearance of these birds, and that without any counterbalancing advantage 
to be gained, for the long limbs of the Spanish would not fail to deteriorate the 
form of any other variety, unless, indeed, it be that of the Malay. In consequence 
of Cochin hens being frequently kept as foster-mothers for Spanish, crosses between 
a Spanish cock and Cochin hens are not unfrequent ; these mongrels are good 
layers of fair-sized eggs, and also good sitters, but the plumage varies in colour, 
nor can they be regarded as ornamental. Some cross-bred chickens between the 
White Spanish and White Cochin were remarkable as being of a uniform slaty 
grey, closely resembling the Andalusians in colour. 
Some suggestions were made some time back by Mr. Trotter in the Koyal 
Agricultural Society’s Journal, as to the improvement in the size of the eggs of 
the Silver Pencilled Hamburgh or Chitteprat by a cross with the Spanish ; but 
the fact was probably overlooked that a cross between two non-sitting varieties of 
poultry almost invariably produces a mongrel that becomes broody and sits with 
remarkable steadiness ; hence the value of such birds, viewed as mere machines 
for converting so much barley into eggs, would be greatly less than that of either 
of the pure breeds from which they were descended. 
The only disease which requires notice in this place is the frostbitten comb to 
which Spanish exposed in cold situations are not unfrequently subject. When this 
accident occurs, the comb becomes very dark-coloured and stiff : if the bird is, with 
a mistaken spirit of kindness, taken into a w^arm room, mortification inevitably 
takes place, and the entire or partial loss of the comb is the result ; if, on the 
contrary, the circulation is restored by rubbing the comb with snow, or, if that is 
not to be procured, with ice-cold water, until such time as the natural colour is 
restored, no harm results, provided the application is made before the bird has been 
suffering any lengthened period of time. 
The most important varieties of the Spanish breed are the Minorcas and the 
AndahisianSf to which may be added the White Spanishj the Anconas, and the 
Columbians. 
The Minorca foivl is very common in Devonshire and Cornwall, and other 
counties of the west of England, though by no means limited to that district. In 
the western parts of Cornwall especially, birds of this variety have long been 
valued as first-rate layers, and consequently they form the principal stock of many 
poultry-yards. The milder temperature of the south of England offers peculiar 
advantages for the successful management of these fowls, which, though for a long 
period accustomed to our climate, still manifest impatience of severe cold. 
In the Minorca fowls the white face so characteristic of the Black Spanish is 
absent, the ear-lobe alone being of that colour. But in both male and female 
