204 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
The accompanying woodcut, taken from the birds which obtained the first prize 
at Paris in 1865, and which afterwards passed into the possession of the National 
Poultry Company, shows the characteristics of this breed, which is thus described 
in Mr. Geyelin’s pamphlet : — 
“ Whatever has been said to the contrary, this breed, when pure, is most cha- 
racteristic ; hut it must be admitted that most of the farmers near Houdan know 
as little of the pure Houdan breed as those of La Fleche and Crevecoeur know of 
theirs ; and if you were to order some first-class birds of them, irrespective of 
price, they would with good conscience forward fov/ls of a large size — hut, from a 
want of knowledge, some cross breeds. To illustrate this, I may mention that I 
could have purchased at the markets in those respective localities splendid 
thorough-bred specimens for about three shillings, the price of common fowls, — 
hut which were worth in France even one pound each. There are, however, 
in each locality some persons who take an interest in their pure breeds, parti- 
cularly since they have been encouraged by the reward of prizes from poultry 
exhibitions. 
The Houdan fowl has a very bulky appearance, its plumage invariably black 
and white spangled ; a crest of the same colour ; comb triple, the outsides opening 
like two leaves of a book, and the centre having the appearance of an ill-shaped 
long strawberry. With the cock the comb is very large, whilst with the hen it 
ought to he scarcely perceptible. The legs are strong and of a lead colour, with 
five claws, the two hind ones one above the other. Strongly developed whiskers 
and beards both in cocks and hens. This is one of the finest races of fowls, but 
its qualities surpass even its beauty ; besides the smallness of their bones, the fine- 
mess of their flesh, they are of an extraordinary precocity and fecundity ; they lay 
large and white eggs, and the chickens are fit for the table at four months old. 
It is, however, observed that they are very indifferent for hatching. The weight of 
adults is from seven to eight pounds, in which the bones figure for one-eighth. 
The chickens, when four months old, weigh, without the intestines, about four-and- 
a-half pounds.” 
Little more remains to be said respecting the appearance and merits of this 
breed. It is obvious that in a variety which is essentially valuable as supplying 
fowls for the table, compact heavy bodies, short legs, absence of offal, hardihood, and 
early maturity are of much greater importance than any peculiar arrangement of 
colour and marking. In fact, the disposition of the colour has hardly been attended 
to by the French breeders. Some of the hens are very dark ; others, on the contrary, 
but slightly speckled with black ; and even the size of the feathered crests varies 
very greatly in different specimens. Should the Houdans ever become as fashion- 
able in this country as their merits deserve, the points that would be looked for by 
the judges in a show-pen will be mainly, size and compactness of form ; unifor- 
mity of marking in the pen ; well- developed crests, particularly in the hens ; and 
in the cocks the crescentic lobed comb with its central mass. As there is a 
strong feeling in England in favour of the additional toe in the Dorking fowl, we 
