thk poultry book. 
231 
without tails ; adding, that he was assured that our English hens, after some time, 
lose their rumps. Buffon accepted this absurd statement as truth, and even Dr. 
Latham seems not to have felt certain of its being untrue. 
The general characters of the Bumpless breeds vary very much. Aldrovandus 
describes them as being black ; at present, they exist of various colours : in 
many, white feathers largely prevail ; some are irregularly spangled, whilst others, 
in plumage, resemble the Black-breasted Red Game. 
Mr. Hewitt states respecting them that — “ It is difficult to breed them to any 
particular colour ; as with the most rigid care in the selection of the brood- stock, 
the chickens sport into nearly every variety of marking and ground-colour. The 
only birds of this kind that I ever knew to breed truly — so far as colour was 
considered — were purely white ones ; they were by far the prettiest collection of 
Bumpless fowls that ever came under my notice. They were all white, without 
exception, and every bird had a somewhat small single comb. Like this variety 
generally, they were good layers and sat well. The wattles were very compact, 
and the legs and feet were of a rather heavy, bony appearance, the colour being 
white. This strain of Bumpless fowls originally came from the Isle of Man. 
From this island I have known others introduced into the Liverpool market that 
were quite black; others a beautiful fawn, and likewise several lots irregularly 
speckled, and, indeed, without possessing any characteristic whatever, except being 
rumpless. Extraordinary differences in point of size exist in these fowls ; some 
specimens range as heavily as six and a half to seven pounds each ; others do not 
exceed two and a half or three pounds. Some have small lark-crests ; others — and 
these constitute the majority — have none. As usually met with, they appear to 
possess no distinguishing formation of comb ; rosy, cupped, and flat combs being 
equally prevalent. There is, therefore, no positive standard that can be laid down 
as the peculiarities of this variety, save the one to which their name refers. The 
size of the eggs varies proportionately with that of the hens by which they are 
produced ; they are white, and somewhat larger than might have been anticipated. 
I now proceed to mention a still more perplexing proof of their versatility of 
character : a friend of mine purchased a successful pen at a poultry- show, taking 
them away to a walk where no other fowls ever trespassed ; and yet the chickens 
were, in a considerable number of instances, furnished with fully-developed tail- 
feathers, being not rumpless. On inquiry of the previous owner, he stated — ‘ Mine 
have always done so from the time I first kept them ; but the tailed birds will 
very probably produce rumpless chickens.’ Three such birds were then purposely 
retained ; and they produced the next year more than twenty youngsters, all of 
which, but one, were rumpless and destitute of tail-feathers. The white ones I 
have before alluded to, occasionally produced chickens that were not rumpless, but 
only rarely. I believe Bumpless fowls to be hardy, as even in exposed situations, 
on the sides of Welsh mountains, they continue in good health and prosper well, 
even in cases where the fowls at all times shift for themselves, and but slight 
attention is shown to the chickens. I can willingly add my testimony, likewise. 
