DORKING FOWLS. 
DORKING FOWLS. 
For those who wish to stock their poultry yards 
with fowls of the most desirable shape and size, 
clothed in rich and variegated plumage, and, not 
expecting perfection, are willing to overlook one 
or two other points, the speckled Dorkings, are 
the breed to be at once selected. [So called from 
a town in Surrey, which brought them into modern 
repute.] The hens, in addition to their gay colors, 
have a large flat comb, which, when they are in 
high health, adds very much to their brilliant ap¬ 
pearance, particularly if seen in bright sunshine. 
The cocks are magnificent. The most gorgeous 
.hues are frequently lavished upon them, which 
their great size, and peculiarly square-built form, 
display to the greatest advantage. The breeder and 
the farmer’s -wife behold with delight their short 
legs, their broad breasts, the small proportion of 
offal, and the large quantity of good profitable flesh. 
When fatted and served at table, the master and 
mistress of the feast are satisfied. The cockerels 
may be brought to considerable weights, and the 
flavor and appearance of their meat are inferior to 
none. Those epicures who now and then like a 
fowl killed by dislocation of the neck without 
bleeding (the more humane way), will find that 
this variety affords a tender and high-flavored dish. 
The eggs are produced in reasonable abundance, 
and though not equal in size to those of Spanish 
hens, may fairly be called large. * They are not 
everlasting layers, but at due, or convenient inter¬ 
vals, manifest the desire of sitting. In this respect, 
they are steady, and good mothers when the little 
ones appear. They are better adapted than any 
other fowl, except the Malay, to hatch superabun¬ 
dant turkey’s eggs. Their size and bulk enable 
U'?m to afford warmth and shelter to the turkey 
: ults for a long period. For the same reason, 
spare goose eggs may be intrusted to them ; though, 
in this respect, I have known the pheasant breed to 
be equally successful. 
With all these merits they are not found to be a 
profitable stock if kept thorough bred and unmixed. 
Their powers seem to fail at an early age. They 
are also apt to pine away and die, just at the point 
of reaching maturity. When the pullet qught to 
begin to lay, and the cockerel to crow and start his 
tail feathers, the comb, instead of enlarging and be¬ 
coming coral red, shrinks and turns to a sickly 
pink, or even to a leaden hue ; and the bird, how¬ 
ever well fed and warmly housed, dies a wasted 
mass of mere feathers, skin, and bone. It is vex¬ 
ing, after having reared a creature just to the point 
when it would be most valuable for the table, or as 
stock, to find it “ going light” \ particularly as it is 
generally the finest specimens, that is the most 
thorough bred, that are destroyed by this malady. 
1 do not believe that the most favorable circum¬ 
stances would prevent the complaint, though un¬ 
favorable ones would aggravate it, but that it is in¬ 
herent in the race and constitution of the birds. 
They appear at a certain epoch to be seized with 
consumption ; exactly as in some unhappy families, 
the sons and daughters are taken off all much at the 
same age. In the speckled Dorkings the lungs 
seem to be the seat of disease, and it is to be re- 
f retted that no dissection was made in cases where 
had the opportunity. But the serious and fatal 
[ maladies of fowls are difficult to trace to their cause* 
• and still more difficult to cure by the application of 
I any remedy. 
Pure Dorking hens are sometimes barren. I had 
[ one a perfect model to the eye, short, square, com¬ 
pact, large, with plumage, comb, and weight all 
that could be wished—the very pullet that a fan¬ 
cier would have chosen to perpetuate the breed. 
JBut she never laid, nor ever showed any disposition 
to sit, and in consequence of her uselessness, at about 
two years old, was brought to table. The carving 
knife soon demonstrated a malformation of the 
back and side bones, and showed that the models 
of the breeder may sometimes be too highly finish¬ 
ed. The cocks, too, with all their' outward trap¬ 
pings and sturdy build, I must suspect to be defi¬ 
cient in vigor. If many hens are allowed to run with 
I them, clear eggs will disappoint those who want 
I large broods of chickens. Three, or at most four, 
! hens to a cock will give the most successful results. 
These and a few other apparently trifling facts 
seem to show that, with the speckled Dorkings (a 
variety of great antiquity), the art of breeding has 
arrived at its limits. 
As mothers, an objection to the Dorkings, is, that 
they are too heavy and clumsy to rear the chicks 
of any smaller and more delicate bird than them¬ 
selves. Pheasants, partridges, Bantams, and Guinea 
fowls, are trampled underfoot and crushed, if in the 
least weakly. The hen, in her affectionate indus¬ 
try in scratching for grubs, kicks her lesser nurse¬ 
lings right and left, and leaves them sprawling on 
their backs. Before thpy are a month old, half of 
them will be muddled to death by this rough kind¬ 
ness. In spite of these drawbacks, the Dorkings 
are still in high favor; but a cross is found to be 
more profitable than the Hue breed. A showy, en¬ 
ergetic game cock, with Dorking hens, produces 
chickens in size, and beauty, little inferior to their 
maternal parentage, and much more robust. Every¬ 
body knows their peculiarity in having a super¬ 
numerary toe on each foot. This characteristic 
almost always disappears with the first cross, but it 
is a point which can very well be spared without 
much disadvantage. In other respects, the appear¬ 
ance of the newly-hatched chicks is scarcely alter¬ 
ed. The eggs of Dorking hens are large, very 
much rounded, and nearly equal in size at each 
end. The chicks are brownish-yellow, with a 
broad, brown stripe down the middle of the back, 
and a narrower one on each side : feet and legs 
yellow. 
On this breed, Mr. Alfred Whitaker thus ex¬ 
presses his opinion:—“ I agree with you fully as 
to the usefulness of this description of poultry, but 
I do not view them exactly through the same me¬ 
dium as to their beauty. Compared with the phea¬ 
sant Malays, they are short-necked, and there is no 
arch nor crest to the neck. Their colors vary from 
a streaked grey to a mottled or spotted brown and 
white. A neighbor, here, has some of the finest I 
ever saw ; the cocks with very full, double combs, 
and the hens generally with reddish-brown spots 
on a -white ground. To my eye, the cocks look 
heavy and stupid, neither the head nor the tail be¬ 
ing usually carried in an erect position, or with 
any semblance of spirit. As regards size, they are 
magnificent. I saw one on my friend’s dinner table, 
