A CHAPTER ON FOWLS. 
189 
Then came the Bucks-county birds, swelling 
accounts of which I saw in the papers, and large 
stories were told of their multifarious excellen¬ 
cies. So I got a grand coop of them from New 
York. They proved a hybrid between the Ma¬ 
lay, Java, or other India, and something else— 
no matter what—and after three or four years’ 
trial, I packed them off with the others. These, 
with their various crosses on the common hen, 
I had, when you brought home the Dorkings for 
me, from England, in 1841. 
These Dorkings, which were quite young 
when they arrived, filled with vermin from their 
long confinement on shipboard, and quite un¬ 
promising in appearance, I kept and bred—[ 
liked them. They were of the speckled variety • 
chocolate-red in color, with white spots and 
stripes beautifully intermixed; large rosy combs; 
clean, compact, bodies; short, white, or flesh- 
colored legs; five toes, which fifth by the way, 
is a superfluity, and of no use whatever; and 
heavier and deeper fleshed on the breast and side bones , 
than any other barndoor fowl I know. The cocks 
were the most brilliant in their plumage imag¬ 
inable, and some of the chickens came out black 
speckled, their glossy coats as beautiful as the 
others. A year or two afterwards, I found a 
white Dorking cock in Albany, which an Eng¬ 
lishman had brought out with him, and as he 
was a lone bird, with no females, I got him of 
his owner. But he did not grow up to suit me, 
and I never bred him to my Dorking hens.(d) My 
first imported cock, when eighteen months old, 
weighed nine and a half pounds, and one of 
the hens, seven and a half pounds. I never saw 
a more beautiful bird, either in plumage or just 
proportion, than that cock; and the hens were 
equally fine. He was the admiration of every¬ 
body who saw him, and when three years old, 
I gave him to a friend, who used to come three 
miles, as often as once a fortnight, to look at 
him, for months before I gave him the bird. 
These birds laid well, and I bred a great many 
chickens from them. They were the best fowls 
for the table I had ever seen, and were the ad¬ 
miration of all who saw them; but I am bound 
to say, they were not so hardy for this climate, 
43° north, nor were they such good layers as 
some of our common fowls. These were the 
first Dorkings ever imported into this country, 
to my knowledge. 
In 1844, you were so kind as to send an order 
for a fresh importation, by Captain Morgan, of 
the London packet ship Washington. On his 
way to England, a clergyman, who lived at 
Dorking, was a passenger. That gentleman 
kindly engaged to procure some of the best 
chickens to be found there for Captain M., whom 
he told, that such could not be had of the poultry 
higglers in the London markets, as the Dorking 
fowl breeders would not send their uncaponised 
fowls away from home—capons being usually 
made from them, because of their full, deep bo¬ 
dies, and short-grained, juicy flesh. The cler¬ 
gyman kept his promise, and sent Captain M. 
a coop of a dozen, the best he could find, nine 
hens and three cocks. On the passage home, 
the chickens got the roup , of which eight of 
them died ; and only four, one cock and three 
hens, came to me, poor as possible, all of them ; 
and one pullet still having the roup, gave it to 
my home flock, out of which I lost upwards of 
twenty. This was a sad calamity, hen speak¬ 
ing. But I survived it, and so did the remain¬ 
der of my chickens. This last importation was 
an improvement, if possible, on the first one. I 
crossed these last upon the first, in part, and 
some I kept distinct; and by taking pains, I have 
kept some of them distinct to the present day. 
I ought to remark that the cock of the last im¬ 
portation was grey, with a blue and white 
speckled breast. One of the hens was a rich, 
ashy grey; another, ashy, speckled with white; 
the last, a rich chocolate-brown. These hens 
weighed six and a half to seven and a half 
pounds each ; the cock was not equal in size nor 
figure, to the first one. Some of these had heavy 
rose or double combs; others single ones. These 
fowls and their descendants, I have shown at 
several of the State Agricultural Exhibitions, 
and was always winner of the first prize. I 
have never seen any Dorkings to equal them; 
and I will now at any time show against the con¬ 
gregated Dorkings of these United States, either 
for size, plumage, shape, beauty, or whatever 
other quality, whether they be “ Albany Dork¬ 
ings,” “ brown Dorkings,” “ China,” “ Nankin,” 
or any other of the American-manufactured Dork¬ 
ings proffered and advertised in the papers at 
five, ten, or twenty dollars the pair. I have now 
some 20 fine young breeding hens, and four or 
five cocks, of all the varieties of color belonging 
to the speckled Dorkings; and intend placing 
their eggs at every cottage on my farm-some 
four or five in number—and raise all the chick¬ 
ens I can; so that at the New-York State Cattle 
Show, in Rochester, next September, I will, bar¬ 
ring all accidents, exhibit them against any and 
all other fowls of any breed whatever; and sup¬ 
ply, as far as I am able, all such as want the 
true unadulterated English Dorkings. 
I have, within the last year, seen the “ black 
