John H. Robinson

Fig. 12. Pet fowls—White Wyandottes and Game Bantams. (Photograph from Dr. J. C. Paige, Amherst, Massachusetts)

The most useful of all birds is the common fowl, seen on almost every farm and in the back yards of many city and village homes. The fowl takes to the conditions of domestic life better than any other land bird. It is more cleanly in its habits, more productive, more intelligent, and more interesting than the duck, which ranks next in usefulness. Fowls supply nearly all the eggs and the greater part of the poultry meat that we use. Their feathers are of less value than those of ducks, geese, and turkeys. In the days when feather beds were common they were made usually of the body feathers of fowls. Now the feathers of fowls are used mostly for the cheaper grades of pillows and cushions, and in the making of feather boas and like articles. The wing and tail feathers have been much used for decorating ladies' hats, and since the use of small wild birds in millinery decorations has been prohibited, the hackle feathers of cocks are quite extensively used in trimming hats.

Fig. 13. Single-combed Rhode Island Red male[2]

Fig. 14. Rose-combed Rhode Island Red female[2]

[2] Photograph from Lester Tompkins, Concord, Massachusetts.

Description. Ordinary fowls are rather small land birds. The males at maturity weigh from four to five pounds each, and the females about a pound less. They are plump, rugged, and very active. If treated well they are bold, and with a little attention can easily be made very tame. If neglected and abused, they become shy and wild. The most striking peculiarities of the fowl are the fleshy comb and wattles which ornament the head, and the full tail which is usually carried well up and spread perpendicularly. The head appendages vary much in size and form. They are sometimes very small, but never entirely wanting. The carriage of the tail also varies, but except in a few breeds bred especially for low tails it is noticeably high as compared with that of other poultry. Fowls are readily distinguished from other birds by the voice. The male crows, the female cackles. These are their most common calls, but there are other notes—some common to both sexes, some peculiar to one—which are the same in all races of fowls. An abrupt, harsh croak warns the flock that one of their number has discerned a hawk or noticed something suspicious in the air. A slowly repeated cluck keeps the young brood advised of the location of their mother. If she finds a choice morsel of food, a rapid clicking sound calls them about her. When she settles down to brood them she calls them with a peculiar crooning note. The male also cackles when alarmed, and when he finds food calls his mates in the same way that the female calls her young under the same circumstances. Other poultry and sometimes even cats and dogs learn this call and respond to it. If the food discovered is something that a stronger animal wants, the bird making the call may lose it because of his eagerness to share the treasure with the members of his family.

In adult fowls the male and female are readily distinguished by differences in appearance as well as by the voice. The comb and wattles of the male are larger, and after he has completed his growth are always of the same size and a bright red in color. In the female the comb is much smaller than that of a male of the same family, and both size and color vary periodically, the comb and wattles being larger and the whole head brighter in color when the female is laying. The tail of the male is also much larger than that of the female and has long plumelike coverts. The feathers of his back and neck are long, narrow, and flowing, and in many varieties are much brighter in color than the corresponding feathers on the female. The male has a short, sharp spur on the inside of each leg, a little above the hind toe. Occasionally a female has spurs, but they are usually very small. With so many differences between male and female the sex of an adult fowl is apparent at a glance. In the young of breeds which have large combs the males begin to grow combs when quite small, and so the sex may be known when they are only a few weeks old. In other breeds the sex may not be distinguished with certainty until the birds are several months old, or, in some cases, until they are nearly full-grown.

Fig. 15. White Polish male (crowing) and female. (Photograph from Leontine Lincoln Jr., Fall River, Massachusetts)

The adult male fowl is called a cock, and also, in popular phrase, a rooster. The adult female fowl is called a hen. The word "hen" is the feminine form of hana, the Anglo-Saxon name for the cock. It is likely that the name "cock," which it is plain was taken from the first syllable of the crow of the bird, was gradually substituted for hana because it is shorter. Hana means "the singer." A young fowl is called a chicken until the sex can be distinguished. After that poultry fanciers call the young male a cockerel and the young female a pullet. The word "pullet" is also used by others, but the popular names for a cockerel are crower and young rooster. The word "cockerel," as is seen at a glance, is the diminutive of "cock." The word "pullet," sometimes spelled poulet, is a diminutive from the French poule, "a hen."

Origin of the fowl. Of the origin of the fowl we have no direct knowledge. It was fully domesticated long before the beginnings of history. There is no true wild race of fowls known. For a long time it was commonly held that the Gallus Bankiva, found in the jungles of India, was the ancestor of all the races of the domestic fowl, but this view was not accepted by some of the most careful investigators, and the most recent inquiries into the subject indicate that the so-called Gallus Bankiva is not a native wild species but a feral race, that is, a race developed in the wild from individuals escaped from domestication.

Appearance of the original wild species. The likeness of the fowls shown in ancient drawings to the ordinary unimproved stock in many parts of the world to-day shows that—except as by special breeding men have developed distinct races—fowls have not changed since the most remote times of which records exist. From the constancy of this type through this long period it is reasonably inferred that no marked change in the size and shape of the fowl had occurred in domestication in prehistoric times, and therefore that the original wild fowl very closely resembled fowls which may be seen wherever the influence of improved races has not changed the ordinary type. The particular point in which the wild species differed from a flock of ordinary domestic fowls was color. Domestic fowls, unless carefully bred for one color type, are usually of many colors. In the wild species, as a rule, only one color would be found, and that would be brown, which is the prevailing color among small land birds.

Distribution of fowls in ancient times. From drawings and descriptions on ancient tablets and from figures on old coins it appears that the fowl was familiar to the Babylonians seven thousand years ago, and that it was introduced into Egypt about 4600 b.c. Chinese tradition gives 1400 b.c. as the approximate date of the introduction of poultry into China from the West. At the time of the founding of Rome the fowl was well known throughout Northern Africa, and in the Mediterranean countries of Europe as far west as Italy and Sicily. It was also known in Japan at this time. Whether it was known in India is uncertain; if not, it was brought there soon after. It is supposed that immediately following their conquests in Central and Western Europe the Romans introduced their poultry into those regions. Thus, at about the beginning of the Christian Era, the fowl was known to all the civilized peoples of the Old World and had been introduced to the less civilized races of Europe.

Fig. 16. Light Brahma cockerel

Development of principal races of fowls. There is no evidence that any of the ancient civilized peoples made any effort to improve the fowl, nor have any improved races been produced in the lands where those civilizations flourished. Outside of this area many different types were gradually developed to suit the needs or the tastes of people in different countries and localities. Thus in the course of centuries were produced from the same original wild stock fowls as unlike as the massive Brahma, with feathered legs and feet, and the diminutive Game Bantam; the Leghorn, with its large comb, and the Polish, with only the rudiments of a comb and in its place a great ball of feathers; the Spanish, with monstrous development of the skin of the face, and the Silky, with dark skin and hairlike plumage. Except in a few limited districts these special types did not displace the ordinary type for many centuries. Until modern times they were hardly known outside of the districts or the countries where they originated. Of the details of their origin nothing is known. They were not of the highly specialized and finished types such as are bred by fanciers now. Their distinctive features had been established, but in comparatively crude form. The refining and perfecting of all these types has been the work of fanciers in Holland, Belgium, England, and America in modern times. These fanciers have also developed new races of more serviceable types.

Fig. 17. Light Brahma hen

Fig. 18. Red Pile Game Bantam cock

Fig. 19. Red Pile Game Bantam hen

How fowls were kept in old times. Less than a century ago it was quite a common practice among the cottagers of England and Scotland to keep their fowls in their cottages at night. Sometimes a loft, to which the birds had access by a ladder outside, was fitted up for them. Sometimes perches for the fowls were put in the living room of the cottage. Such practices seem to us wrong from a sanitary standpoint, but it is only within very recent times that people have given careful attention to sanitation, and in old times, when petty thieving was more common than it is now, there was a decided advantage in having such small domestic animals as poultry and pigs where they could not be disturbed without the owner's knowing it. The practice of keeping fowls in the owner's dwelling seems to have been confined to the poorer people, who had no large domestic animals for which they must provide suitable outbuildings. On large farms special houses were sometimes provided for poultry, but they were probably oftener housed with other animals, for few people thought it worth while to give them special attention.

Fig. 20. White-Faced Black Spanish cockerel. (Photograph from R. A. Rowan, Los Angeles, California)

Throughout all times and in all lands the common domestic birds have usually been the special charge of the women and children of a household. In some countries long-established custom makes the poultry the personal property of the wife. A traveler in Nubia about seventy years ago states that there the henhouse, as well as the hens, belonged to the wife, and if a man divorced his wife, as the custom permitted, she took all away with her.

Fig. 21. Silver-Spangled Polish cock and hen. (Photograph from Leontine Lincoln Jr., Fall River, Massachusetts)

The flocks of fowls were usually small in old times. It was only in areas adjacent to large cities that a surplus of poultry or eggs could be disposed of profitably, and as the fowls were almost always allowed the run of the dooryard, the barnyard, and the outbuildings, the number that could be tolerated, even on a large farm, was limited. As a rule the fowls were expected to get their living as they could, but in this they were not so much worse off than other live stock, or than their owners. But, while this was the ordinary state of the family flock of fowls, there were frequent exceptions. The housewife who is thrifty always manages affairs about the house better than the majority of her neighbors, and in older poultry literature there are occasional statements of the methods of those who were most successful with their fowls, which we may well suppose were methods that had been used for centuries.

Fig. 22. Black Langshan cock. (Photograph from Urban Farms, Buffalo, New York)

Modern conditions and methods. About a hundred years ago people in England and America began to give more attention to poultry keeping, and to study how to make poultry (especially fowls) more profitable. This interest in poultry arose partly because of the increasing interest in agricultural matters and partly because eggs and poultry were becoming more important articles of food. Those who studied the situation found that there were two ways of making poultry more profitable. One way, which was open to all, was to give the birds better care; the other was to replace the ordinary fowls with fowls of an improved breed. So those who were much interested began to follow the practices of the most successful poultry keepers that they knew, and to introduce new breeds, and gradually great changes were made in the methods of producing poultry and in the types of fowls that were kept in places where the interest in poultry was marked.

Nearly all farmers now keep quite large flocks of fowls. Many farmers make the most of their living from poultry, and in some places nearly every farm is devoted primarily to the production of eggs and of poultry for the table. Fowls receive most attention, although, as we shall see, some of the largest and most profitable farms are engaged in producing ducks. In the suburbs of cities and in villages all over the land many people keep more fowls now than the average farmer did in old times. These city poultry keepers often give a great deal of time to their fowls and still either lose money on them or make very small wages for the time given to this work, because they try to keep too many in a small space, or to keep more than they have time to care for properly.

Fig. 23. Black Langshan hen. (Photograph from Urban Farms, Buffalo, New York)

The breeding of fancy fowls is also an important pursuit. Those who engage in this line on a large scale locate on farms, but many of the smaller breeders live in towns, and the greater number of the amateur fanciers who breed fine fowls for pleasure are city people.

On large poultry farms the work is usually done by men. There are many small plants operated by women. The ordinary farm and family flocks are cared for by women and children much oftener than by men, because, even when the men are interested in poultry, other work takes the farmer away from the vicinity of the house, and the city man away from home, so much that they cannot look after poultry as closely as is necessary to get the best results. Many women like to have the care of a small flock of fowls, because it takes them outdoors for a few minutes at intervals every day, and the eggs and poultry sold may bring in a considerable amount of pin money. Many boys, while attending the grammar and high schools, earn money by keeping a flock of fowls. Some have saved enough in this way to pay expenses at college for a year or more, or to give them a start in a small business. When there are both boys and girls in a family, such outdoor work usually falls to the lot of a boy. A girl can do just as well if she has the opportunity and takes an interest in the work.

Fig. 24. Pit Game cock. (Photograph from W. F. Liedtke, Meriden, Connecticut)

Native fowls in America. To appreciate the influence of improved races of fowls from various parts of the Old World upon the development of poultry culture in America, we must know what the fowls in this country were like when poultry keepers here began to see the advantages of keeping better stock, and must learn something of the history of the improved races in the countries from which they came.

Fig. 25. Dominique cockerel. (Photograph from W. H. Davenport, Coleraine, Massachusetts)

When we speak of native fowls in America we mean fowls derived from the stocks brought here by the early settlers. The fowl was not known in the Western Hemisphere until it was brought here by Europeans. Britain, France, Spain, Holland, and Sweden all sent colonists to America, and from each of these countries came, no doubt, some of the ordinary fowls of that country. Perhaps improved varieties came from some of these lands in early colonial times, but the only breeds that retained their identity sufficiently to have distinctive names were the Game Fowls, which came mostly from England, and the Dominiques (bluish-gray barred fowls which probably came from Holland or from the north of France, where fowls of this type were common).

Fig. 26. Dominique hen. (Photograph from Skerritt and Son, Utica, New York)

The Game Fowls, being prized for the sport of cockfighting, were often bred with great care, but the Dominique fowls (also called cuckoo fowls and hawk-colored fowls) were mixed with other stock, and the name was commonly given to any fowl of that color, until after the improvement of fowls began. Then some people collected flocks of fowls of this color and bred them for uniformity in other characters. Well-bred fowls, however, were comparatively rare. Most of the stock all through the country was of the little mongrel type until about the middle of the last century. Then that type began to disappear from New England, New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. It remained longer in the Northern states west of the Allegheny Mountains and a generation ago was still the most common type in the upper Mississippi Valley. It is now unknown outside of the Southern states, and within ten or twenty years it will disappear entirely.

Fig. 27. Silver-Gray Dorking cock

Fig. 28. Silver-Gray Dorking hen

Old European races of fowls. With the exception of the Leghorn, most of the distinct breeds of European origin were brought from England, and the types introduced were not the types as developed in the places where the breeds (other than English breeds) originated, but those types as modified by English fanciers. In America, again, most of these breeds have been slightly changed to conform to the ideas of American fanciers. So, while the breed characters are still the same as in the original stocks, the pupil looking at birds of these breeds to-day must not suppose that it was just such birds that came to this country from seventy to a hundred years ago, or that, if he went to the countries where those races originated, he would find birds just like those he had seen at home. Except in the case of the distinctly English breeds, such as the Dorking and the Cornish Indian Game, which are bred to greater perfection in their native land than elsewhere, he would find most of the European races not so highly developed in the countries where they originated as in England and America, where fanciers are more numerous.

Fig. 29. Single-Comb Brown Leghorn cockerel. (Photograph from Grove Hill Poultry Yards, Waltham, Massachusetts)

Fig. 30. Rose-Comb Buff Leghorn hen. (Photograph from H. J. Fisk, Falconer, New York)

Italian fowls. Strictly speaking, the Italian fowls in Italy are not an improved race. The fowl which is known in this country as the Leghorn fowl (because the first specimens brought here came from the port of Leghorn) is the common fowl of Italy and has changed very little since it was introduced into that country thousands of years ago. It is found there in all colors, and mostly with a single comb. The Italian type is of particular interest, not only because of its influence in modern times, but because from it were probably derived most of the other European races. Italian fowls were first brought to this country about 1835, but did not attract popular attention until twenty-five or thirty years later.

Fig. 31. Silver-Spangled Hamburg cock[3]

Fig. 32. Silver-Spangled Hamburg hen[3]

[3] Photograph from Dr. J. S. Wolfe, Bloomfield, New Jersey.

English races of fowls. It is supposed that fowls were introduced into Britain from Italy shortly after the Roman conquest. The type was probably very like that of ordinary Leghorn fowls of our own time, but with smaller combs. From such stock the English developed two very different races, the Pit Game and the Dorking. Game fowls were bred in all parts of the kingdom, but the Dorkings were a local breed developed by the people in the vicinity of the town of Dorking, where from very early times the growing of poultry for the London market was an important local industry. Each in its way, these two breeds represent the highest skill in breeding. In the Old English Game Fowl, symmetry, strength, endurance, and courage were combined to perfection. The Dorking is the finest type of table fowl that has ever been produced.

Fig. 33. White-Crested Black Polish cock[4]

Fig. 34. White-Crested Black Polish hen[4]

[4] Photograph from Charles L. Seely, Afton, New York.

German and Dutch races. The breeds now known as Hamburgs and Polish are of peculiar interest to a student of the evolution of races of fowls, because they present some characters not readily derived from the primitive type of the fowl. The feather markings of some varieties of both these breeds are unlike those of other races, and are markings which would not be likely to become established unless the fowls were bred systematically for that purpose. So, too, with the large crest of the Polish fowl: to carry it the structure of the head must be changed. Such changes require systematic breeding for a long period. Dutch and German artists of the sixteenth century painted many farmyard scenes showing fowls of both these types, frequently in flocks with common fowls and with some that appear to be a mixture. To any one versed in the breeding of poultry this indicates that these peculiar types had been made by very skillful breeders long before. The most reasonable supposition is that these breeders were monks in the monasteries of Central Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages the monks of Europe, more than any other class of men, worked for improvement in agriculture as well as for the advancement of learning.

Fig. 35. Houdan cock. (Photograph from the Houdan Yards, Sewickley, Pennsylvania)

Fig. 36. White Minorca hen. (Photograph from Tioga Poultry Farm, Apalachin, New York)

French races. The Houdan is the only French breed well known in America. It is of the Polish type, but heavier, and the plumage is mottled irregularly, not distinctly marked as in the party-colored varieties of Polish. The breed takes its name from the town of Houdan, the center of a district in which this is the common type of fowl.

Spanish races. The fowls of Spanish origin well known outside of Spain are the White-faced Black Spanish, the Black Minorca, and the Blue Andalusian. The fowls of Spain at the present time are mostly of the Italian type, with black (or in some districts blue) the predominant color. The Black Spanish seems to have been known in Holland and England for two hundred years or more. In Spain the white face is but moderately developed. The monstrous exaggeration of this character began in Holland and was carried to the extreme by British fanciers who admired it.

Fig. 37. Black Minorca cock. (Photograph from Arthur Trethaway, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)

The Black Minorca is supposed to have been brought to England direct from Spain about a century ago. There it was bred to much greater size, with the comb often so large that it was a burden to the fowl. Blue Andalusians, at first called Blue Spanish and Blue Minorcas, were first known in England about 1850.

Asiatic races of fowls. The evolution of races of fowls in the Orient gave some general results strikingly different from those in Europe. As far as is known, after the introduction of fowls into China and India some thousand years ago the stock which went to those countries and that which descended from it was completely isolated from the fowls of Western Asia, Africa, and Europe until the eighteenth century. When commerce between Europe, India, and the East Indies began, the Europeans found in these countries fowls of a much more rugged type than those of Europe. Some of these fowls were much larger than any that the visitors had seen. The Aseel of India was a small but very strong, stocky type of Game. Among the Malayans the common fowl was a large, coarse type of Game. The hens of these breeds laid eggs of a reddish-brown color, while hens of all the races of Europe laid white eggs. Birds of both these types were taken to England early in the last century, and perhaps in small numbers before that time.

Fig. 38. Buff Cochin hen[5]

Fig. 39. Buff Cochin cock[5]

[5] Photograph from Tienken and Case, Rochester, Michigan.

Fig. 40. Dark Brahma hen

Chinese races. In China a type of fowl in some ways much like the Malay, in others quite different, had been developed as the common stock of the country. They were about as tall as the Malays, much heavier, and very quiet and docile. They were of various colors, had feathers on the shanks and feet, and laid brown eggs. Some of these fowls were brought to America in sailing vessels very early in the last century and occasionally after that until the middle of the century, but attracted no attention, for the birds were brought in small numbers for friends of sailors or for persons particularly interested in poultry, and at that time there was no means of communication between fanciers in different localities.

Fig. 41. Dark Brahma cockerel

Japanese races. Although the Japanese races of fowls had no particular influence on the development of poultry culture in America, they are of great interest in a study of poultry types, because, when intercourse between Japan and Western nations began, it was found that the ordinary fowls of Japan were much like the ordinary fowls of Europe and America, and not, as would be expected, like the fowls of China. This indicated that there had been no exchange of fowls between China and Japan after the type in China became changed. It also affords strong evidence that the fowls of India and China, although so changed, were originally like the European and Japanese common fowls. The special races developed in Japan were Game Fowls, more like the European than the Malay type; a long-tailed fowl, very much like the Leghorn in other respects; and the very short-legged Japanese Bantam.

Fig. 42. Long-Tailed Japanese Phoenix cockerel. (Photograph from Urban Farms, Buffalo, New York)

The "hen-fever" period. We are all familiar with the phrase "the hen fever" and with its application to persons intensely interested in poultry, but few know how it originated. The interest in better poultry that had been slowly growing in the Eastern states culminated in 1849 in an exhibition in the Public Garden in Boston, to which fanciers from eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and eastern Connecticut brought their choicest and rarest specimens. This was the first poultry show held in America. Nearly fifteen hundred birds were exhibited, and the exhibitors numbered over two hundred. There were a few birds of other kinds, but fowls made by far the greater part of the show. All the principal races of Europe and Asia were represented. Most of the exhibitors lived in the immediate vicinity of Boston. About ten thousand people attended this exhibition.

Such an event created a great sensation. Newspaper reports of it reached all parts of the country. The Chinese fowls, so large when compared with others, were most noticed. At once a great demand for these fowls and for their eggs arose, and prices for fancy poultry, which previously had been but little higher than prices for common poultry, rose so high that those who paid such prices for fowls were commonly regarded as monomaniacs. While the interest was not as great in other kinds of fowls as in the Shanghais, Cochin Chinas, and "Brahmaputras," as they were then called, all shared in the boom, and within a few years there was hardly a community in the northeastern part of the United States where there was not some one keeping highly bred fowls. When the interest became general, the famous showman, P. T. Barnum, promoted a show of poultry in the American Museum in New York City. Many celebrated men became interested in fine poultry. Daniel Webster had been one of the exhibitors at the first show in 1849. The noted temperance lecturer, John B. Gough, was a very enthusiastic fancier.

After a few years the excitement began to subside, and most people supposed that it was about to die, never to revive. A Mr. Burnham, who had been one of the most energetic promoters of Asiatic fowls, and had made a small fortune while the boom lasted, had so little confidence in the permanence of the poultry fancy that he published a book called "The History of the Hen Fever," which presented the whole movement as a humbug skillfully engineered by himself. This book was very widely read, and the phrase "the hen fever," applying to enthusiastic amateur poultry keepers, came into common use.

Subsequent developments showed that those who had supposed that the interest in fine poultry was only a passing fad were wrong. The true reason for its decline at that time was that the nation was approaching a crisis in its history and a civil war. When the war was over, the interest in poultry revived at once, and has steadily increased ever since. The prices for fine specimens, which were considered absurd in the days of the hen fever, are now ordinary prices for stock of high quality.

Fig. 43. Barred Plymouth Rock cock. (Photograph from Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)

How the American breeds arose. It is natural to suppose that with such a variety of types of fowls, from so many lands, there was no occasion for Americans to make any new breeds. If, however, you look critically at the foreign breeds, you may notice that not one of them had been developed with reference to the simple requirements of the ordinary farmer and poultry keeper. It was the increasing demand for eggs and poultry for market that had given the first impulse to the interest in special breeds. The first claim made for each of these was that it was a better layer than the ordinary fowl. In general, these claims were true, but farmers and others who were interested primarily in producing eggs and poultry for the table were rather indifferent to the foreign breeds, because, among them all, there was not one as well adapted to the ordinary American poultry keeper's needs as the old Dominique or as the occasional flocks of the old native stock that had been bred with some attention to size and to uniformity in other characters.

To every foreign breed these practical poultry keepers found some objection. The Dorking was too delicate, and its five-toed feet made it clumsy. The Hamburgs, too, were delicate, and the most skillful breeding was required to preserve their beautiful color markings. The superfluous feathers on the heads of the crested breeds and on the feet of the Asiatics were equally objectionable. All the European races except the Leghorns had white skin and flesh-colored or slate-colored feet, while in America there was a very decided popular preference for fowls with yellow skin and legs. The Leghorns and the Asiatics met this requirement, but the former were too small and their combs were unnecessarily large, while the latter were larger fowls than were desired for general use, and their foot feathering was a handicap in barnyards and on heavy, wet soils.

Fig. 44. Barred Plymouth Rock hen. (Photograph from Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)

So, while fanciers and those who were willing to give their poultry special attention, or who kept fowls for some special purpose which one of the foreign breeds suited, took these breeds up eagerly, farmers and other poultry keepers usually became interested in them only to the extent of using male birds of different breeds to cross with flocks of native and grade hens. In consequence of this promiscuous crossing, the stock in the country rapidly changed, a new type of mongrel replacing the old native stock.

While the masses of poultry keepers were thus crossing new and old stock at random, many breeders were trying systematically to produce a new breed that would meet all the popular requirements. Even before the days of the hen fever two local breeds had arisen, probably by accident. These were the Jersey Blue and the Bucks County Fowl, both of which continued down to our own time but never became popular. At the first exhibition in Boston a class had been provided for crossbred fowls, and in this was shown a new variety called the Plymouth Rock. From the descriptions of these birds now in existence it appears that they looked much like the modern Partridge Plymouth Rock. Those who brought them out hoped that they would meet the popular demand, and for a short time it seemed that this hope might be realized, but interest in them soon waned, and in a few years they were almost forgotten.

Fig. 45. White Plymouth Rock hen (Photograph from C. E. Hodgkins, Northampton, Massachusetts)

In the light of the history of American breeds which did afterwards become popular we can see now that the ideas of the masses of American poultry keepers were not as strictly practical as their objections to the various foreign breeds appeared to show. The three varieties that have just been mentioned, and many others arising from time to time, met all the expressed requirements of the practical poultry keeper quite as well as those which subsequently caught his fancy. Indeed, as will be shown farther on, some of the productions of this period, after being neglected for a long time, finally became very popular. Usually this happened when their color became fashionable.

The modern Barred Plymouth Rock. Shortly after our Civil War two poultrymen in Connecticut—one a fancier, the other a farmer—engaged in a joint effort to produce the business type of fowl that would meet the favor of American farmers. A male of the old Dominique type was crossed with some Black Cochin hens. This mating produced some chickens having the color of the sire, but larger and more robust. Another and more skillful fancier saw these chickens and persuaded the farmer to sell him a few of the best. A few years later, when, by careful breeding and selection, he had fixed the type and had specimens enough to supply eggs to other fanciers, he took some of his new breed to a show at Worcester, Massachusetts. Up to this time he had not thought of a name for them, but as people who saw them would want to know what they were called, a name was now necessary. It occurred to this man that the name "Plymouth Rock," having once been given to a promising American breed, would be appropriate. So the birds were exhibited as Plymouth Rocks.

Fig. 46. Buff Plymouth Rock cock

This new breed caught the popular fancy at once, for it had the color which throughout this country was supposed always to be associated with exceptional vigor and productiveness, and it had greater size than the Dominique. The fame of the new breed spread rapidly. It was impossible to supply the demand from the original stock, and, as there is usually more than one way of producing a type by crossing, good imitations of the original were soon abundant. Farmers and market poultrymen by thousands took up the Plymouth Rock, while all over the land fanciers were trying to perfect the color which their critical taste found very poor.

Fig. 47. Silver-Penciled Plymouth Rock hen

Other varieties of the Plymouth Rock. The success of the Plymouth Rock gave fresh impetus to efforts to make new breeds and varieties of the same general character. Great as was its popularity, the new breed did not suit all. Some did not like the color; some objected to the single comb, thinking that a rose comb or a pea comb had advantages; some preferred a shorter, blockier body; others wanted a larger, longer body. The off-colored birds which new races usually produce in considerable numbers, even when the greater number come quite true, also suggested to some who obtained them new varieties of the Plymouth Rock, while to others it seemed better policy to give them new names and exploit them as new and distinct breeds.

Both black and white specimens came often in the early flocks of Barred Plymouth Rocks. The black ones were developed as a distinct breed, called the Black Java. The white ones, after going for a while under various names, and after strong opposition from those who claimed that the name "Plymouth Rock" belonged exclusively to birds of the color with which the name had become identified, finally secured recognition as White Plymouth Rocks. Almost immediately Buff Plymouth Rocks appeared. For reasons which will appear later, the origin of these will be given in another connection. Then came in rapid succession the Silver-Penciled, the Partridge, or Golden-Penciled (which, as has been said, is probably quite a close duplicate of the type to which the name "Plymouth Rock" was originally given), and the Columbian, or Ermine, Plymouth Rock. These were all of the general type of the Barred variety, but because in most cases they were made by different combinations, and because fanciers are much more particular to breed for color than to breed for typical form, the several varieties of the Plymouth Rock are slightly different in form.

Fig. 48. Silver-Laced Wyandotte pullet. Photographed in position showing lacing on back

Fig. 49. Silver-Laced Wyandotte cockerel

The Wyandottes. Closely following the appearance of the Barred Plymouth Rock came the Silver-Laced Wyandotte, called at first simply the Wyandotte. The original type was quite different in color from the modern type. It had on each feather a small white center surrounded by a heavy black lacing. This has been gradually changed until now the white center is large and the black edging narrow. At first some of these Wyandottes had rose combs and some had single combs. The rose comb was preferred and the single-combed birds were discarded as culls.

Strange as it seems in the case of an event so recent, no one knows where the first Wyandottes came from. It is supposed that they were one of the many varieties developed either by chance or in an effort to meet the demand for a general-purpose fowl. They appear to have come into the hands of those who first exploited them in some way that left no trace of their source. They went under several different names until 1883, when the name "Wyandotte" was given them as an appropriate and euphonious name for an American breed.

Fig. 50. White Wyandotte cockerel. (Photograph from W. E. Mack, Woodstock, Vermont)

Next appeared a Golden-Laced Wyandotte, marked like the Silver-Laced variety but having golden bay where that had white. This variety was developed from an earlier variety of unknown origin, known in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois (about 1870 and earlier) under the name of "Winnebago."

The Silver-Laced Wyandottes, like the Barred Plymouth Rocks, produced some black and some white specimens. From these were made the Black Wyandottes and the White Wyandottes. Then came the Buff Wyandottes (from the same original source as the Buff Plymouth Rocks), and after them Partridge Wyandottes, Silver-Penciled Wyandottes, and Columbian, or Ermine, Wyandottes. From the three last-named varieties came the Plymouth Rock varieties of the corresponding colors, the first stocks of these being the single-combed specimens from the flocks of breeders of these varieties of Wyandottes.

Fig. 51. Silver-Penciled Wyandotte cockerel. (Photograph from James S. Wason, Grand Rapids, Michigan)

Fig. 52. Partridge Wyandotte pullet

The Rhode Island Red. Among the earliest of the local types developed in America was a red fowl which soon became the prevalent type in the egg-farming section of Rhode Island and quite popular in the adjacent part of Massachusetts. Most of the stock of this race was produced by a continuous process of grading and crossing which was systematic only in that it was the common practice to preserve none but the red males after introducing a cross of another color. A few breeders in the district bred their flocks more carefully than others, but the race as a whole was not really thoroughbred until after it became more widely popular.

Although the formation of this race began about 1850 (perhaps earlier), it was fifty years before it became known outside of the limited area in which it was almost the only type to be seen. Indeed, the first birds of this race to attract the attention of the public were exhibited about 1890 as Buff Plymouth Rocks and Buff Wyandottes. At that time very few of the Rhode Island Reds were as dark in color as the average specimen now seen in the showroom, and buff specimens were numerous. Birds with rose combs, birds with single combs, birds with pea combs, and birds with intermediate types of comb could often be found in the same flock. So it was not a very difficult matter, among many thousands of birds, to pick out some that would pass for Buff Plymouth Rocks and some that would pass for Buff Wyandottes. These varieties were also made in other ways, mostly by various crosses with the Buff Cochin, but for some years breeders continued to draw on the Rhode Island supply.

Fig. 53. Columbian Wyandottes. (Photograph from R. G. Richardson, Lowell, Massachusetts)

Some people in the Rhode Island district thought that a breed which could thus furnish the foundation for varieties of two other breeds ought to win popularity on its own merits. So they began to exhibit and advertise Rhode Island Reds. At first they made little progress, but as the breed improved, many more people became interested in it, and soon it was one of the most popular breeds in the country. The modern exhibition Rhode Island Red is of a dark brownish red in color.

The American idea in England; the Orpington. At the time that the Chinese fowls were attracting wide attention in America and England some were taken to other countries of Europe. In almost every country they had some influence upon the native stock, but as each of the old countries had one or more improved races that suited most of those giving special attention to poultry culture, the influence of the Asiatics was less marked than in our country.

When the Plymouth Rock and the Wyandotte became popular in America, they were taken to England, where, in spite of the preference for white skin and flesh-colored legs, they were soon in such favor that a shrewd English breeder saw the advantage of making another breed of the same general type but with skin and legs of the colors preferred in England. He called his new breed the Orpington, giving it the name of the town in which he lived. The first Orpingtons were black and were made by crossing the black progeny of Plymouth Rocks (which in America had been used to make the Black Java), Black Minorcas, and Black Langshans. Then the originator of the Orpingtons put out a buff variety, which he claimed was made by another particular combination of crosses, but which others said was only an improvement of a local breed known as the Lincolnshire Buff. Later White Orpingtons and Spangled Orpingtons appeared.

Present distribution of improved races. Having briefly traced the distribution of the fowl in ancient times, and the movements which in modern times brought long-separated branches of the species together, let us look at the present situation.

The Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, and Orpingtons, which are essentially one type, the differences between them being superficial, constitute the greater part of the improved fowls of America and England and are favorites with progressive poultry keepers in many other lands. In many parts of this country one rarely sees a fowl that is not of this type, either of one of the breeds named or a grade of the same type. After the general-purpose type, the laying type, which includes the Italian, Spanish, German, and Dutch races, is the most popular, but in this type popularity is limited in most places to the Leghorns and to a few breeds which, though classed as distinct breeds, are essentially the same. The Ancona is really a Leghorn, and the Andalusian, although it comes from Spain, is, like other races in that land, distinctly of the same type as the fowls of Italy.

Fig. 54. Single-Combed Buff Orpington cock. (Photograph from Miss Henrietta E. Hooker, South Hadley, Massachusetts)

With the growth of a general-purpose class, interest in the Asiatic fowls rapidly declined. They are now kept principally by fanciers and by market poultry growers who produce extra large fowls for the table.

Deformed and dwarf races. Although some of the races of fowls that have been considered have odd characters which, when greatly exaggerated, are detrimental and bring the race to decay, such characters as large combs, crests, feathered legs, and the peculiar development of the face in the Black Spanish fowl, when moderately developed, do not seriously affect the usefulness of fowls possessing them. With a little extra care they usually do as well as fowls of corresponding plain types. Poultry keepers who admire such decorations and keep only a few birds do not find the extra care that they require burdensome, and consequently all these races have become well established and at times popular. It is notable that in all fowls of this class the odd character is added to the others or is an exaggeration of a regular character. There are two other classes of odd types of fowls. The first of these is made up of a small group of varieties defective in one character; the second comprises the dwarf varieties, most of which are miniatures of larger varieties.

Silky fowls. In all races of fowls individuals sometimes appear in which the web of the feathers is of a peculiar formation, resembling hair. Such fowls are called silkies. They are occasionally exhibited as curiosities but are not often bred to reproduce this character. There is one distinct race of white fowls, so small that it is usually classed as a bantam, having feathers of this kind.

Fig. 55. Single-Combed White Orpington hen. (Photograph from Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)

Frizzled fowls. The feathers of a fowl are sometimes curled at the tips, like the short curls in the feathers which indicate the sex of a drake. Such birds are called frizzles or frizzled fowls. True frizzles, like true silkies from races having normal plumage, are very rare. Many of the fowls exhibited at poultry shows as Frizzles are ordinary birds the feathers of which have been curled artificially.

Rumpless fowls. The tail feathers of a fowl are borne on a fleshy protuberance at the lower end of the spine. It sometimes happens that one or more of the lower vertebrÆ are missing. In that case the fowl has no tail and the feathers on the back, which in a normal fowl divide and hang down at each side, fall smoothly all around. True rumpless fowls are rare. Many of the specimens exhibited are birds from which the rump was removed when they were very young.

Bantams. Dwarf, or bantam, fowls, on account of their diminutive size and pert ways, are especially attractive to children. Breeding them to secure the minimum size, the desired type, and fine quality in plumage color has the same fascination for a fancier as the breeding of large fowls, and as the small birds are better adapted to small spaces, fanciers who have little room often devote themselves to the breeding of bantams. The larger and hardier varieties of bantams are good for eggs and poultry for home use, but are not often kept primarily for these products. Most people who keep bantams keep only a few for pleasure, and the eggs and poultry they furnish are but a small part of what the family consumes. Bantam keepers who have a surplus of such products can usually find customers in their own neighborhood. The very small bantams and the very rare varieties are usually delicate and so hard to rear that amateurs who try them soon become discouraged and either give up bantams or take one of the hardy kinds. It is better to begin with one of the popular varieties, which are as interesting as any and, on the whole, are the most satisfactory.

Fig. 56. White Cochin Bantam cockerel

Origin of bantams. After the explanation of the origin of varieties given in Chapter III, and the description of the evolution of the different races of fowls in the present chapter, it is perhaps not really necessary to tell how dwarf races of fowls originated; but the belief that such races were unknown until brought to Europe from the city of Bantam, in the Island of Java, is so widespread that it can do no harm to give the facts which disprove this and in doing so to show again how easily artificial varieties are made by skillful poultry fanciers.

Fig. 57. Bantams make good pets

As has been stated, people who do not understand the close relations of the different races of fowls, and do not know how quickly new types may be established by careful breeding, attach a great deal of importance to purity of breed. Hence, unscrupulous promoters of new breeds have often claimed that they received their original stock direct from some remote place or from some one who had long bred it pure. The idea of assigning the town of Bantam as the home of a true species of dwarf domestic fowl seems to have occurred to some one in England more than a hundred years ago, and to have been suggested because of the resemblance of the name of this Asiatic city to the English word "banty," the popular name for a dwarf fowl. It seems strange that such a fiction should be accepted as accounting for dwarf varieties of European races, but it was published by some of the early writers, used by lexicographers, and, having found a place in the dictionaries, was accepted as authoritative by the majority of later writers on poultry, even after some of the highest authorities had shown conclusively that this view of the origin of dwarf races was erroneous.

Fig. 58. Black-Tailed White Japanese Bantams. (Photograph from Frederick W. Otte, Peekskill, New York)

Fig. 59. White Polish Bantam hen

Fig. 60. White Polish Bantam cock

No evidence of the existence of a dwarf race of fowls in Java has ever been produced. The Chinese and Japanese bantams did not come to Europe and America until long after the name "bantam" came into use. Dwarfs occur and undoubtedly have occurred frequently in every race of fowls. Usually they are unsymmetrical and weakly, and are called runts and put out of the way as soon as possible. But occasionally an undersized individual is finely formed, active, and hardy. By mating such a specimen with the smallest specimen of the other sex that can be found (even though the latter is much larger), and by repeated selection of the smallest specimens, a dwarf race may be obtained. It could be made, though not so rapidly, by systematic selection of the smallest ordinary specimens and by keeping the growing chicks so short of food that they would be stunted. The latter process, however, is so tedious that no one is likely to adopt it. Usually the idea of making a new variety of bantams does not occur to a breeder until he sees a good dwarf specimen of a race of which there is no dwarf variety. Then, if he undertakes to make such a variety, he is likely to use in the process both small specimens of large races and birds of long-established dwarf races.

Fig. 61. Black Cochin Bantam pullet[6]

Fig. 62. Black Cochin Bantam cockerel[6]

Fig. 63. Rose-Comb Black Bantam cock

Fig. 64. Rose-Comb Black Bantam hen[7]

Dwarf types of most of the popular breeds have been made here and exhibited, but the originators were given very little encouragement to perfect them.

Fig. 65. Silver Sebright Bantam cockerel

Fig. 66. Silver Sebright Bantam pullet

Fig. 67. Dark Brahma Bantam cockerel

Fig. 68. Light Brahma Bantam hen with brood[8]

Varieties of bantams. The most popular bantams in this country to-day are the Cochin Bantams, formerly called Pekin Bantams because the first that were seen in Europe and America had come from Peking. Only the self-colored varieties—buff, black, and white—are natives of China. The Partridge variety was made in England, where there are several other color varieties not known in this country. The Common Game Bantam is a dwarf Pit Game fowl; the Exhibition Game Bantam is a dwarf type resembling the Exhibition Game, developed from the Common Game Bantam. Rose-Comb Black and Rose-Comb White Bantams are diminutive Hamburg fowls; Polish Bantams are diminutive Polish. The Sebright Bantams are of the same general type as the Rose-Combs, but in color they are laced like the large varieties of Polish, not spangled like the party-colored Hamburgs. They are further distinguished by being "hen-tailed," that is, the males having tails like hens. Sebright Bantams were made in England about a hundred years ago, by Sir John Sebright, for whom they were named. Although the large Brahmas and Cochins are originally of the same stock, no bantams of the colors of the Brahmas have come from China. The Light and Dark Brahma Bantams were made in England and America in very recent times. From Japan has come a peculiar type of bantam with very short legs, a large tail carried very high, and a large single comb. In their native country the Japanese Bantams are not separated into distinct color varieties. In England and America there are black, white, gray, black-tailed white, and buff varieties.