88 
FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by JospPrH M. 
WADE, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
a 
ff ANCIERS" Ajovnan AND 
iS 
JOSEPH M. WADE, Editor and Proprietor. 

OULTRY GFxonancs, 

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DAVENPORT POULTRY CLUB. 
(Continued from page 73, No. 5.) 
It is proper here to take a survey of the pure varieties of 
poultry, now recognized among us as worthy of fancy and 
propagation since the ‘‘ hen fever ’’ has subsided into a ra- 
tional interest in these pets, and especially into rational 
prices for specimens. The specimens first brought from the 
Orient were called Shanghais, Chittagongs, Cochin Chinas, 
Brahma Poortras, &c., according as they had been obtained 
at one or other seaport. But since, by inbreeding, they 
have been reduced to distinct types, they are known as 
Cochins, Brahmas, and Malays. Of the Cochins there are 
the buff, lemon, cinnamon, grouse, partridge, white and 
black. The last is sometimes erroneously called Black Java. 
Of the Brahmas there are the light and dark. The chief 
excellencies of these varieties are size (from 8 to 18 lbs.), 
docility that requires but little fencing to restrict them, har- 
diness, winter-laying, and early and constant sitting. Their 
defects are, capacity for much food, flesh not so delicate as in 
some others, and to fat and disease after passing the age of 
eighteen months. The Malays are so long and bony with so 
little flesh, and that of a poor quality, that they have been 
discarded by fanciers. The Dorking family, comprising the 
white-gray, silver-gray, and speckled, is an English product 
with whom as a table fowl they have held the first place for 
many years. Their excellencies are, abundance of the best 
of flesh with smallness of bone, docility, and superiority as 
sisters and mothers. Their defects ave, great delicateness of 
constitution while chicks, and being the poorest of winter- 
The Black 
Spanish fowl is a native of Spain, and probably from Spain 
Columeli obtained his specimens 1800 years ago, from his 
relative, whom he says was a ‘‘sharp and ingenious man 
who engaged in breeding cattle and sheep in that country.” 
When carefully bred the Black Spanish are very handsome, 
produces a great many eggs during summer, but spends a 
long time in moulting, lays but little during the winter, sits 
layers, and the greatest of garden scratchers. 
| fence, Clippers, Tartars, &e. 

occasionally and unreliably, and is very indifferent on the 
table. The White Leghorn fowl] is nearly the exact counter- 
part of the Spanish, substituting white plumage for black, 
but is rather more noisy, quarrelsome and thieving in dispo- 
sition, and equally indifferent as a table bird. The Hamburgs, 
spangled and pencilled golden, spangled and pencilled silver, 
and black are difficult to locate in their origin. My opinion 
is that the silver varieties are German, the pencilled golden, 
Paduan or perhaps Turkish, the spangled golden English, 
and the black a cross of spangled golden and Black Spanish. 
They are to my eye the most beautiful of gallinacious fowls, 
are unsurpassed as summer layers, and the early pullets are 
good winter layers. The spangled golden is somewhat 
larger than the silver varieties, and their flesh is the best that 
grows on chicken bones, I think. The Hamburg, when 
startled, is a great flyer, but ordinarily is of a most quiet 
and gentle disposition. Close domestication destroys their 
disposition to sit, but reared with unlimited range they oc- 
casionally sit and make constant mothers. They are com- 
paratively harmless in the garden and are almost proof 
against roost robbers by reason of their persistent squaling 
when handled. Their chief defects are, late maturity, small- 
ness of size, and liability to ‘‘roup,”’ though they rarely take 
the cholera, the scourge of the Asiatic varieties. The Polish 
fowl, black, white, silver and golden laced, is of Polish ori- 
gin, perhaps Turkish, but most likely of East India. ‘They 
are called “‘ Polish’”’ for their large crests; are very pretty, 
excellent summer layers, fair table fowls, but are delicate to 
rear, small of size, mature slowly, and scratch the garden ex- 
ceedingly. Bantams, Black African, white-yellow, golden 
and silver-laced, are merely ornamental fowls. They are 
very handsome, proud of carriage, saucy, and quarrelsome. 
Their diminutiveness renders them useless as practical, but 
valuable as ornamental birds. The Bantam was first ob- 
tained in the kingdom of Bantam, in the East Indies. The 
gold and silver-laced Bantams, so called for the dark edging 
on each feather in their plumage, are claimed to have been 
produced as a composit variety by Lord Sebright, of Eng- 
land, professedly in pursuance of the theories of Dr. Darwin. 
But as Lord Sebright never divulged the ‘‘ secret” of their 
production, and a repetition of the claimed phenomenon had 
never been effected, the whole claim seems very doubtful. 
Game Bantams are merely dwarf game fowls, produced by 
late and inbreeding, as dwarfs of any variety may be had. 
The Dominiques and Plymouth Rocks are varieties that seem 
to have been evolved from miscellaneous breeding of other 
varieties. The game fowl, whose origin has been already re- 
ferred to, is of many varieties and subvarieties, but these 
are reducible to three original types, the red, gray, and black. 
Of these the red is best, being a better layer, sitter, and 
mother; and is less quarrelsome though equally courageous 
as compared with the others. The gray is larger, more 
quarrelsome, and of all games the poorest layer. Games are 
but moderately good winter layers as a class, but are unsur- 
passed as sensible, sedate, though courageous sitters and 
mothers. Among the many subvarieties of game, we may 
name the Earl Derby, Pile (a name corrupted from pied), 
blue, red and white pied. Also Seftons, Heathwoods, Stone- 
I may be pardoned, perhaps, 
for mentioning here a subvariety or strain, I haye, with 
encouraging success, endeavored to produce, with a view to 
combining the best qualities of the game fowl in the highest 
degree; 7. ¢., excellence for the table, and as layers, sitters, 
and mothers, requiring size, stamina, and courage as essential 
