THE POULTRY BOOK. 
223 
bred in our climate ; as those I first possessed produced chickens in a few years 
after their importation, in which the peculiarities of their race were fast waning 
away, although the degeneracy was not to be attributed to cross-breeding with 
other poultry, I am certain that no fowls I ever possessed were so satisfactory for 
rearing pheasants, partridges, and other delicate youngsters : under their protection, 
I scarcely lost a single chicken. The unusual warmth of their plumage, no doubt, 
produced this result ; and they are certainly well worth a trial by those who are 
interested in the production of game artificially. They w^ere also tolerable layers, 
and the eggs were of equal excellence to those of other fowls. The young chickens 
are both interesting, unique, and very beautiful. They are certainly a variety of 
poultry that require far more protection from hard and wet weather than most 
others. Their downy covering soon becomes saturated; and if much exposed, 
disease inevitably ensues. 
Silk fowls should be strictly limited to their own particular walk, and pro- 
hibited the possibility of access to any other description of fowls ; for by crossing, 
the injury is equally apparent in the offspring, whether considered as fancy fowls, 
or designed for table purposes. For the last-named service, so far as appearances 
alone are concerned, they are the very reverse of covetable. 
‘‘ The skin of highly-bred Silk fowls, if boiled, assumes an extremely dark violet 
colour, and the external surface of all the bones is of a precisely similar hue ; 
should they, on the other hand, have been roasted, they become even less inviting, 
for by this treatment they appear considerably darker still, and of course cannot 
be placed before visitors who are unaccustomed to them, without a general 
explanation that seldom proves perfectly satisfactory. Even though so untempting 
to the eye, they are not an indifferent fowl as to flavour : I have many times 
partaken of both pure and cross-bred Silk fowls, and found them, when well fed, 
equal to most others. 
“ I found in all instances that the silkiness from which these fowls derive 
their appellation, is not transmitted to the offspring produced by intermixture with 
other varieties ; these chickens simply betray their origin by the colour of the skin 
and bone — indeed, they exhibit but little of the general outward character of their 
silky ancestry ; and thence it is that country poulterers are themselves frequently 
unaware of this great drawback to their value as sale birds, until they are denuded 
of their feathers. With all their failings, they are really invaluable for the rearing 
of tender chickens requiring great warmth and care.” 
It is usually stated, in the compilations that have issued from the press as 
original works on poultry, that the Silk fowl is the Gallus Morio of Temminck ; this 
statement is, however, perfectly destitute of foundation. Temminck, in his 
“ Histoire Naturelle General e des Gallinaces,” describes the breed under the name 
of the Coq a Duvet, and gives it the scientific title of Gallus Lanatus, or dowmy 
fowl, and the name Gallus Morio is applied by him to the Coq Negre, the negro, or 
black-skinned fowl, which has plumage of the ordinary character. This latter breed 
is evidently the result of a cross between the silky and the ordinary fowl. The 
