164 
THE POULTRY BOOIT. 
cock. — Chickens : cockerels about the size of barn-door fowls, red, with spangled 
breasts, beards, small top-knots, large white ear-lobes, blue legs ; pullets brown, 
with spangled breasts and necks, backs running into grizzle. Excellent layers, 
and good-sized eggs. 
“ 3rd. Silver- spangled Hamburgh cock and Brahma hen. — Chickens large, 
very handsome. Cockerels ; silver- spangled breasts and slightly spangled over the 
back, with flowing tails, rose-combs, large red ear-lobes, blue legs, feathered. 
Pullets : silver-spangled. They are the handsomest cross-bred fowls I have seen. 
“4th. Silver- spangled Hamburgh cock and Buff Cochin-China hen. — Two 
pullets : dark gray, running into a grizzle ; legs blue ; single combs. Inferior to 
the cross with Brahmas. 
“ 5th. Silver- spangled Hamburgh cock and White-faced Spanish hen. — Chickens : 
very hardy, short-legged, plump fowls ; single and rose-combs ; large white ear- 
lobes ; black legs ; neck silver-laced, and the remainder of the body dark gray.” 
It is singular that in the two instances of crossing with Spanish hens, the 
chickens produced by the Golden-pencilled Hamburgh cock partook of the delicacy 
of the sire ; whereas those from the Spangled Hamburgh cock and Spanish hen 
are described as very hardy. 
Before concluding this chapter on Spangled Hamburghs it is desirable to correct 
an erroneous impression that the breeds known as Gold and Silver Pheasant 
fowls originated in crosses with the wild pheasant. As this opinion is still held 
by many who are unacquainted with the fact that all such hybrids are sterile, we 
have much pleasure in inserting the following account of several of these birds 
from the pen of Mr. Hewitt, who writes : — 
“ As my desire is to prevent, as far as possible, any poultry amateur from 
incurring unnecessary trouble or expense at the commencement of his career, by 
the pursuit of objects that are either altogether unattainable or actually worthless 
if secured, perhaps a few hints as to hybrids between the pheasant and fowl will 
be esteemed interesting, as at one period I devoted considerable attention to the 
subject; and although these experiments were continued for some years, and 
necessarily entailed no slight expenditure, the results were, as a whole, the very 
reverse of satisfactory, for my hope was to procure a really beautiful as well as 
singular plumage. The common popular error that, even in the present day, fails 
not to delude numbers of unpractised poultry fanciers into the impression that the 
variety of the Golden- spangled Hamburgh known in the northern counties as the 
* Golden Pheasant,’ or ‘Pheasant Fowl,’ is the product of a ‘cross’ between the 
real pheasant of our woods and a hen of our common domestic fowl, I should have 
thought was a folly that had long since been exploded, being a position that no 
real naturalist could by possibility have ever entertained. Yet so it is : many 
parties are still found, not only dictatorially asserting it as an absolute fact, but 
likewise producing the common Spangled Plamburgh fowl as the fruit or invariable 
product of this unusual connection. Such individuals generally endeavour to 
Bupport their statement by an appeal to the regularity of the markings of the 
