Hamburg Fowls

HAMBURG FOWLS. Hamburg fowls are of a number of varieties, the principal ones being the Black Hamburg, and the Penciled Ham burgs, the latter being divided into Golden and Silver Penciled. Whatever the variety they all have these characteristics. They are of small to.' medium size, compact, and handsome in their carriage, with bright, firm, double combs, ending at the rear in a long point, turned up. The tail is large, ,upright, and with long plume feathers. Their constitutions are good. They are good lay ers, and seldom inclined to sit; the eggs are small,.

but of delicate flavor. The cut shows a pair of Penciled Hamburgs. That they are an old breed, is evidenced from the fact that Aldrovan dus describes it as the Turkish fowl. The white• body and black markings, the greenish-black tail, and the blue-tinted legs, show that this old writer had in his mind what now is the Silver penciled Hamburg fowl. They have long been known in England, as Bolton Grays, Creoles, Creels, Corals, etc., from their markings, and

on the continent, also, under a variety of names, showing their wide dispersion and general good qualities. The general character of the Penciled Hamburgs, either silver or golden, besides these already noted, are: In the plumage on the body of the hens, each feather except the. neck-hackle, is penciled with several transverse bars of black on a clear ground, white in the silver variety, and a golden red or rather' a rich bay in the golden; the hackles, however, being free from dark marks. The cocks have not these marks, they are either white or bay. The legs in both sexes are blue; the ear-lobe white, well-defined, and the face scarlet. The tail of the cocks should be black, the sickle and side sickle feathers glossed green, with a narrow white edging. The tails of the hens are distinctly barred, or penciled with black.