250 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
and insects, was not counterbalanced by much injury to the seed-beds and borders. 
The inordinate length of the feathers on their legs and feet was injurious to their 
chickens. In wet weather, especially, the young broods were apt to be en- 
tangled and crushed, and the employment of the hen as a mother was sadly 
interfered with. 
Mr. Hewitt remarks concerning this variety that — Perfectly bred birds of this 
description are now very rarely to be met with, although some twenty-five or 
thirty years since they were not by any means an uncommon variety. The old 
booted Bantam was a hardy and extraordinary-looking fowl, considerably larger, 
however, than the Bantams that we at the present time generally meet with ; the 
point which Bantam-fanciers now consider all-important, diminutiveness, having 
been but little attended to, as they used to weigh nearly two pounds each. 
Booted Bantams are usually of a brown or grey speckled colour throughout, having 
either single or rosy combs, and very lively intelligent-looking faces. The most 
evident singularity of this variety is the extraordinary development of the feathers 
of the^thigh, which in well-bred fowls are so lengthy as to wear away consider- 
ably (by the friction of walking) upon the surface of the ground. If any of the 
largest of these feathers are closely examined, they prove quite as long in the shaft 
as those of the wing itself. The ‘ boots ’ or feathers, extending along the outside 
of the legs to the feet (and in most instances to the two outside toes also), are fre- 
quently longer than the feathers of the wings themselves, especially if the fowls 
have been well attended to, and enjoy a walk where they are not likely to break 
them in pieces. By reference to my early memoranda of this breed, I find the 
longest boots I ever remember seeing ^were in a cock ; they measured nine and a 
half inches on each leg. ‘ Muffs ’ (as they were formerly called) of seven inches 
long were easily acquired. From this peculiarity, these fowls scratch less in gar- 
dens than any I ever possessed ; but few advantages prove real benefits if tested in 
all ways. The boots, during the time of incubation, are apt to drag the eggs from 
the nest ; and not unfrequently, during the first few days of their existence, prove 
fatal to the chickens also ; and should any of the long feathers on the leg be 
injured at the base, during their growth, they bleed very profusely. Booted Bantams 
are good layers, and the fowls themselves very plump and excellent for the 
table.” 
Some very good specimens of purely White Booted Bantams have been exhibited 
within the last few years, and certainly have been not the least attractive specimens 
of their race. 
PEKIN OR COCHIN BANTAMS. 
The most remarkable novelty that has appeared in the Bantam classes at our 
poultry shows for several years past is unquestionably the singular variety known 
as the Pekin Bantam. These birds may be described as miniature Cochins, 
bearing the same relation to the full-sized Buff Cochins that Game Bantams do to 
ordinary Game fowls, but with a still greater disparity of size between the two 
