THE POULTRY BOOK, 
219 
“ 111 Houdans I want size, with compact bodies, broad breasts, legs as light as 
possible in colour, five claws, plumage similar to that of the Crevecceurs, but 
broken black and white ; brisk lively carriage, and sound health and condition. 
In La Fleche I look for size, large long bodies, long snaky necks, large evenly 
double-spiked combs, utter absence of crest, long pendulous wattles, and white 
deaf-ears, shanks long and dark in colour, tail jet-black and rather small. This 
breed differs materially in the shape of the head from any of the others, it 
being long and Malay-like, inducing a suspicion that that old standard variety had 
at some time or other something to do with the foundation of this new breed. 
That these three breeds all come true to points, if not to colour, is sufficient 
to establish them as separate and notable varieties, though it is not difficult to 
trace in all of them_ the characteristics of some of our old-established, pure 
breeds. 
Of the La Bresse, Guelders, and other French breeds, I know nothing; but I 
do not hesitate to pronounce those I have mentioned on the present occasion as 
valuable acquisitions, and I give my verdict for the Houdans, as by far the best. 
I should have mentioned that they are all heavy feeders, but the Crevecoeur and 
La Fleche astoundingly so for their size ; a Crevecoeur in full health will eat as 
much or more than a Buff Cochin.” 
There remains for our consideration the continental breed, knov/n as Gueldres 
or Guelders. These birds, though not much known in this country, have been 
long described in the American works on poultry, in which they are termed 
Guelderlands, after the province of Holland of that name, lying south of the 
Zuyder Zee, whence they are said to have been obtained. 
Guelders are birds of medium size, with very full, prominent breasts, and large 
flowing tails. Their most striking characteristics are in the head, which is 
ornamented with very large pendant wattles, but is destitute of either feathered 
crest or comb, unless the existence of one or two red points — which are often 
entirely absent — can be regarded as the latter organ in a very rudimentary 
condition. Their colour is generally either grey, cuckoo, or pure black, but we 
have seen them spangled, like a Golden Polish. 
There is no doubt whatever that the Guelders were originally a sport from 
the feather-crested Polish family. The black look exactly like a White-crested 
Black Polish, wanting the crest : there is the same form of body, fulness of 
chest, largely developied pendulous wattles, and nostrils flattened and deformed, 
from the absence of the intermaxillary bones. 
In those spangled birds that we have seen, the analogy to the gold-spangled 
Polish was equally close, the birds being as fully bearded as the most ardent 
Polish fancier could desire. 
The Cuckoo Guelders have large pendulous wattles like the black, and some of 
the American birds of this colour have strongly-feathered legs. 
Guelders are very good layers, and, as might be expected from their close affinity 
to the Polish, are non-sitters. They may be correctly characterized as very useful 
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