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DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
feather is divided by bars evenly arranged, of alternate white and gold 
color. Like the spangled, they are divided into golden and silver for the 
same reason — the ground-color of the plumage. In all these birds, exact- 
ness of the markings is a great point. 
The Black Hamburg . — This is a very beautiful variety, being of a 
brilliant black, with metallic luster. The brilliancy of the plumage, 
contrasted with the coral-red of the spiked comb and the white ear- 
lobes, renders this fowl so attractive in appearance, that we cannot help 
wondering that it is not more general, particularly as, like all the Ham- 
burgs, it is an excellent layer. 
THE DOKKING FOWL. 
Tile Dorking Fowl. — The Dorking would appear to owe its name to its 
having been chiefly bred in a town of Surry, of the same appellation. 
That the peculiarity of five toes, or, in other words, of two hind toes 
instead of one, is to be regarded as a distinctive character of the breed, 
is by some writers questioned, and by others wholly denied. For my 
part, I should say, that whenever this characteristic is absent, a cross 
has been at work. 
I do not, however, mean to assert that this possession of two hind 
toes instead of one, has never occurred in any other family of fowl ex- 
cept those bred at Dorking, in Surry, for Aristotle has mentioned the 
existence of a similar peculiarity among certain fowl in Greece, and both 
Columella and Pliny assert the existence of such in their time in Italy, 
so also does Aldrovand; and these authors lived hundreds of years ago; 
and, oddly enough, these breeds were remarkable, as are our own Dork- 
ing, for being good layers and good sitters. 
The color of the Dorking is usually pure white, or spotted or span- 
gled with black ; these colors sometimes merge into a gray or grizzle. 
The hens weigh from seven to nine ponnds ; stand low on their legs ; 
