inE SERAI TA-OOK, OR SULTAN FOWLS 
CHAPTEK XVII. 
SULTAN FOWLS. 
T he Sultans, or Feather-footed White Polish, are a very elegant and pleasing 
variety : they were first imported into this country from Turkey, by Miss Watts 
of Hampstead ; their exceedingly ornamental appearance has gained them many 
admirers, and they are now established favourites at our shows. The following 
description of them was published by the lady above-mentioned : — 
“ The Serai- Tdook, or Foiuls of the Sultan , — This is the last Polish fowl 
introduced among us : they partake of the character of Polish in their chief 
characteristics, in compactness of form and good laying qualities. They were sent 
to us by a friend living at Constantinople, in January, 1854. A year before, we 
had sent him some Cochin-China fowls, with which he was very much pleased ; 
and when his son soon after came to England, he said he could send from Turkey 
some fowls with which we should he pleased. Scraps of information about muffs, 
and divers beauties and decorations, arrived before the fowls, and led to expecta- 
tions of something much prettier than the pretty Ptarmigan, in which we had 
always noticed a certain uncertainty in tuft and comb. 
‘‘In January they arrived in a steamer chiefly manned by Turks. The voyage 
had been long and rough ; and poor fowls so rolled over and glued into one mass 
with filth were never seen. Months afterwards, with the aid of one of the first 
fanciers in the country, we spent an hour in trying to ascertain whether the feathers 
of the cock were white or striped, and almost concluded that the last was the true 
state of the case, although they had been described by our friend as ‘ bellissimi 
galli bianchi.* 
