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full size until the second season. They lay well, but late. Their eggs are very small in proportion to the size of the birds. I should say that their weight was on the average above that of the Black Spanish, while their eggs are a third smaller. Baker, of London and Chelsea (one of the best fancy dealers), told me that they were a breed from Calcutta. They are certainly tender, and apt to die in the moulting; but the Hens, in my opinion, are unrivalled in beauty, while the Cock is a fine bird, though not so uncommon in appearance, except to an experienced eye, which will detect peculiarity of growth.

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"If you do not know the Pheasant-Malays (which is merely a market name), I will send you with pleasure a Pullet and a late Cockerel. I am sorry that I cannot send an earlier Cock bird, as I apprehend that now sent will not attain average size. The plumage of the Pullet promises well. The Hens have scarcely any comb. Cocks always have a comb extending but a very little way backward, but standing up so high as always to fall a little over on one side. I have never seen any variation as to the combs or the colour of the neck and tailfeathers, either of males or females, which indicates them to be a real variety. The only variation I have observed is in the body-colour of the Hens, and this not in the marking, but merely in the ground colour, which is sometimes paler and duller than is the case with that of the Pullet I send. I would most cheerfully inclose some eggs, but I have none, as they very rarely lay in winter. The eggs are quite small, but of excellent flavour, neither very white nor brown; the shape varies considerably. The Chicks are of a yellowish colour, with sometimes two brown stripes down the back and a few specks about the head, but more usually without either. They have, however, invariably the hinder part of the back of an intenser or browner yellow, almost amounting to a warm fawn colour. I think that the chicks should not be hatched before May."

The birds thus kindly offered were thankfully accepted; and after a railway journey of more than two hundred and fifty miles, stepped out of their hamper uncramped, uninjured, and undismayed by curious inspectors, and with evidently an appetite for breakfast. The Pullet was certainly a great beauty; and I was pleased to find them of the same type as the "Pheasant breed" with which I had been previously acquainted. Their richness of colour, and increase of size, being the result of skilful selection and feeding for several generations. The colour of the legs being quite white, did not agree with the Norfolk specimens, but the several varieties of Game Fowl exhibit much greater differences amongst each other. That some breeders wish to encourage an upright and others a rose comb, merely shows a difference of taste, which, however, ought to be decided by the fancy one way or the other, in order to maintain the purity of the This comparison of individuals, bred more than three hundred miles apart, establishes the existence of the Pheasant-Malays as a permanent variety of Fowls. The only discrepancy, which is more apparent than real, lies in the varying size of the eggs; but I have seen so many changes in that respect in the same Hen, under altered circumstances, as to attach no importance to variation of size, unless shape and colour were also found to be different.

race.

The Cocks display considerable courage; the Hens are jealously affectionate towards their chicks, bustling, and petulant, thus exhibiting in disposition an affinity to the Game breed.

Mr. Whitaker adds: "My male birds have a very peculiar feathering on the neck,-the neck-feathers being very long and full, dark-red, and black at the tips, but the under part of a downy white. The consequence is an appearance of mixed dark-red and white about the neck, which is the more peculiar from its being so particularly at variance with the glossy black neck-feathering of the female. The feathering of the back and wings is rather

scanty, and the tail is not very full. The bird has a good, erect carriage.

"The Chickens hatched in June always succeed better than those that are hatched earlier. The Chickens of this breed are very small at first, and but scantily supplied with down. As they begin to grow, they have a very naked appearance from the slow development of their feathers, and this renders them very susceptible of cold. At six weeks old they are not above half the size of Dorkings of the same age, but after two months they grow very fast, and the Pullets feather well and show indications of their permanent colour. The Cocks are ragged in appearance until five months old, after which they get their permanent plumage, and grow fast. As a sort of profitable growth I cannot recommend them, but the ornamental figure and colour of the Hens, I think, is beyond question. The flesh, at table, is extremely good and white; and they lay abundantly, though late. I have a strong suspicion from various peculiarities, that they are of comparatively recent introduction into this country from a much warmer climate.

"I once attempted to describe to you (See p. 170) an oval abortion; I have since found a second, in which the similarity was complete. The upper egg which was concealed within the other, below the unclosed orifice left at the egg-stalk, was congested with blood in both cases, while the lower egg or yolk (there being two in each case within the shell) was quite natural. A fortnight after I found the latter abortion, I looked into the same nest, and saw there one of my Pheasant-Malay Pullets of last year. On looking closely at her, I saw she was dead; and on opening her, another of these abortions was seen, accompanied by general congestion of the ovarium and a vast quantity of internal fat, which I find these birds very much disposed to take on."

It is a common opinion among country-people, that misshapen eggs are caused by the Hen that lays them being too fat. It certainly does often happen that an

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over-fat Hen lays deformed eggs, but I believe that the cause has been mistaken for the effect; and that the non-production of the usual quantity of natural-sized eggs, in consequence of some peculiar state of the egg-organs, compels the superabundant nourishment taken by the bird, to be deposited in the shape of fat, instead of being secreted in the form of eggs.

THE GAME FOWL.

It would be easy to write a thick volume upon Fighting Cocks and Hens. No other brood runs off into so many varieties, which still are all true Game Fowls. The catalogue of sorts is a long one; and, as many of them have been preserved, for several generations (of men), distinct, in various noble and gentle families, we are led to inquire whether a more minute subdivision of species might not, in the end, lead to a more correct knowledge of the whole genus. The only objection to this is, the trouble it would cause to naturalists; but this is not the only instance in which the works of nature are difficult for human wit to grasp. It would certainly be as interesting to compare the leading varieties, well-stuffed, in a Museum, as it would be difficult to have a quiet assemblage of them in a court-yard.

It is not within the range of the present Essays to hunt up the distinctions of the sporting fancy, particularly as Cock-fighting is said to have become obsolete; but an allusion to those distinctions may excite the curiosity of the naturalist. It is the temperament which gives the bird its value in the eye of the sportsman; its physical qualities deserve the notice of the ornithologist. But even now, many of the handsomest Game Cocks to be seen, are already trimmed (in the comb at least), in case they should be wanted in a hurry for a private spar.

The Game Cock approaches nearer to the Malay and Pheasant-Malay than to any other variety of Fowl. As we have made the Spanish Fowl, on account of his welldeveloped single comb, the type of the genus, so, in any circular arrangement of the genus itself, we should make the Game Fowl the centre from which the rest, in one way or another, diverge. There are the white-legged, the yellow-legged, and the leaden or black-legged Game

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