It is a singular fact that the males in certain sub-breeds have lost some of their secondary masculine characters, and from their close resemblance in plumage to the females, are often called hennies. There is much diversity of opinion whether these males are in any degree sterile; that they sometimes are partially sterile seems clear (7/46. Mr. Hewitt in Tegetmeier 'Poultry Book' 1866 pages 246 and 156. For hen-tailed game-cocks see page 131.), but this may have been caused by too close interbreeding. That they are not quite sterile, and that the whole case is widely different from that of old females assuming masculine characters, is evident from several of these hen-like sub-breeds having been long propagated. The males and females of gold and silver-laced Sebright Bantams can be barely distinguished from each other, except by their combs, wattles, and spurs, for they are coloured alike, and the males have not hackles, nor the flowing sickle-like tail-feathers. A hen-tailed sub-breed of Hamburghs was recently much esteemed. There is also a breed of Game- fowls, in which the males and females resemble each other so closely that the cocks have often mistaken their hen-feathered opponents in the cock-pit for real hens, and by the mistake have lost their lives. (7/47. 'The Field' April 20, 1861. The writer says he has seen half-a-dozen cocks thus sacrificed.) The cocks, though dressed in the feathers of the hen, "are high-spirited birds, and their courage has been often proved:" an engraving even has been published of one celebrated hen-tailed victor. Mr. Tegetmeier (7/48. 'Proceedings of Zoolog. Soc.' March 1861 page 102. The engraving of the hen-tailed cock just alluded to was exhibited before the Society.) has recorded the remarkable case of a brown-breasted red Game cock which, after assuming its perfect masculine plumage, became hen-feathered in the autumn of the following year; but he did not lose voice, spurs, strength, nor productiveness. This bird has now retained the same character during five seasons, and has begot both hen-feathered and male-feathered offspring. Mr. Grantley F. Berkeley relates the still more singular case of a celebrated strain of "polecat Game fowls," which produced in nearly every brood a single hen-cock. "The great peculiarity in one of these birds was that he, as the seasons succeeded each other, was not always a hen-cock, and not always of the colour called the polecat, which is black. From the polecat and hen-cock feather in one season he moulted to a full male-plumaged black-breasted red, and in the following year he returned to the former feather." (7/49. 'The Field' April 20, 1861.)
I have remarked in my 'Origin of Species' that secondary sexual characters are apt to differ much in the species of the same genus, and to be unusually variable in the individuals of the same species. So it is with the breeds of the fowl, as we have already seen, as far as the colour of plumage is concerned, and so it is with the other secondary sexual characters. Firstly, the comb differs much in the various breeds (7/50. I am much indebted to Mr. Brent for an account, with sketches, of all the variations of the comb known to him, and likewise with respect to the tail as presently to be given), and its form is eminently characteristic of each kind, with the exception of the Dorkings, in which the form has not been as yet determined on by fanciers, and fixed by selection. A single, deeply- serrated comb is the typical and most common form. It differs much in size, being immensely developed in Spanish fowls; and in a local breed called Red-caps, it is sometimes "upwards of three inches in breadth at the front, and more than four inches in length, measured to the end of the peak behind." (7/51. The 'Poultry Book' by Tegetmeier 1866 page 234.) In some breeds the comb is double, and when the two ends are cemented together it forms a "cup-comb;" in the "rose-comb" it is depressed, covered with small projections, and produced backwards; in the horned and creve-coeur fowl it is produced into two horns; it is triple in the pea-combed Brahmas, short and truncated in the Malays, and absent in the Guelderlands. In the tasselled Game a few long feathers rise from the back of the comb: in many breeds a crest of feathers replaces the comb. The crest, when little developed, arises from a fleshy mass, but, when much developed, from a hemispherical protuberance of the skull. In the best Polish fowls it is so largely developed, that I have seen birds which could hardly pick up their food; and a German writer asserts (7/52. 'Die Huhner- und Pfauenzucht' 1827 s. 11.) that they are in consequence liable to be struck by hawks. Monstrous structures of this kind would thus be suppressed in a state of nature. The wattles, also, vary much in size, being small in Malays and some other breeds; in certain Polish sub-breeds they are replaced by a great tuft of feathers called a beard.
The hackles do not differ much in the various breeds, but are short and stiff in Malays, and absent in Hennies. As in some orders male birds display extraordinarily-shaped feathers, such as naked shafts with discs at the end, etc., the following case may be worth giving. In the wild Gallus bankiva and in our domestic fowls, the barbs which arise from each side of the extremities of the hackles are naked or not clothed with barbules, so that they resemble bristles; but Mr. Brent sent me some scapular hackles from a young Birchen Duckwing Game cock, in which the naked barbs became densely re-clothed with barbules towards their tips; so that these tips, which were dark coloured with a metallic lustre, were separated from the lower parts by a symmetrically-shaped transparent zone formed of the naked portions of the barbs. Hence the coloured tips appeared like little separate metallic discs.
The sickle-feathers in the tail, of which there are three pair, and which are eminently characteristic of the male sex, differ much in the various breeds. They are scimitar-shaped in some Hamburghs, instead of being long and flowing as in the typical breeds. They are extremely short in Cochins, and are not at all developed in Hennies. They are carried, together with the whole tail, erect in Dorkings and Gaines; but droop much in Malays and in some Cochins. Sultans are characterised by an additional number of lateral sickle-feathers. The spurs vary much, being placed higher or lower on the shank; being extremely long and sharp in Games, and blunt and short in Cochins. These latter birds seem aware that their spurs are not efficient weapons; for though they occasionally use them, they more frequently fight, as I am informed by Mr. Tegetmeier, by seizing and shaking each other with their beaks. In some Indian Game cocks, received by Mr. Brent from Germany, there are, as he informs me, three, four, or even five spurs on each leg. Some Dorkings also have two spurs on each leg (7/53. 'Poultry Chronicle' volume 1 page 595. Mr. Brent has informed me of the same fact. With respect to the position of the spurs in Dorkings see 'Cottage Gardener' September 18, 1860 page 380.); and in birds of this breed the spur is often placed almost on the outside of the leg. Double spurs are mentioned in an ancient Chinese Encyclopaedia. Their occurrence may be considered as a case of analogous variation, for some wild gallinaceous birds, for instance, the Polyplectron, have double spurs.
Judging from the differences which generally distinguish the sexes in the Gallinaceae, certain characters in our domestic fowls appear to have been transferred from the one sex to the other. In all the species (except in Turnix), when there is any conspicuous difference in plumage between the male and female, the male is always the most beautiful; but in golden- spangled Hamburghs the hen is equally beautiful with the cock, and incomparably more beautiful than the hen in any natural species of Gallus; so that here a masculine character has been transferred to the female. On the other hand, in Cuckoo Dorkings and in other cuckoo breeds the pencilling, which in Gallus is a female attribute, has been transferred to the male: nor, on the principle of analogous variation, is this transference surprising, as the males in many gallinaceous genera are barred or pencilled. With most of these birds head ornaments of all kinds are more fully developed in the male than in the female; but in Polish fowls the crest or top-knot, which in the male replaces the comb, is equally developed in both sexes. In the males of certain other sub-breeds, which from the hen having a small crest, are called lark-crested, "a single upright comb sometimes almost entirely takes the place of the crest." (7/54. Dixon 'Ornamental and Domestic Poultry' page 320.) From this latter case, and more especially from some facts presently to be given with respect to the protuberance of the skull in Polish fowls, the crest in this breed must be viewed as a feminine character which has been transferred to the male. In the Spanish breed the male, as we know, has an immense comb, and this has been partially transferred to the female, for her comb is unusually large, though not upright. In Game fowls the bold and savage disposition of the male has likewise been largely transferred to the female (7/55. Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that Game hens have been found so combative, that it is now generally the practice to exhibit each hen in a separate pen.); and she sometimes even possesses the eminently masculine character of spurs. Many cases are on record of fertile hens being furnished with spurs; and in Germany, according to Bechstein (7/56. 'Naturgeschichte Deutschlands' b. 3 1793 s. 339, 407.), the spurs in the Silk hen are sometimes very long. He mentions also another breed similarly characterised, in which the hens are excellent layers, but are apt to disturb and break their eggs owing to their spurs.
Mr. Layard (7/57. On the Ornithology of Ceylon in 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. History.' 2nd series volume 14 1854 page 63.) has given an account of a breed of fowls in Ceylon with black skin, bones, and wattle, but with ordinary feathers, and which cannot "be more aptly described than by comparing them to a white fowl drawn down a sooty chimney; it is, however," adds Mr. Layard, "a remarkable fact that a male bird of the pure sooty variety is almost as rare as a tortoise-shell tom-cat." Mr. Blyth found the same rule to hold good with this breed near Calcutta. The males and females, on the other hand, of the black-boned European breed, with silky feathers, do not differ from each other; so that in the one breed, black skin and bones and the same kind of plumage are common to both sexes, whilst in the other breed, these characters are confined to the female sex.
At the present day all the breeds of Polish fowls have the great bony protuberance on their skulls, which includes part of the brain and supports the crest, equally developed in both sexes. But formerly in Germany the skull of the hen alone was protuberant: Blumenbach (7/58. 'Handbuch der vergleich. Anatomie' 1805 page 85 note. Mr. Tegetmeier, who gives in 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' November 25, 1856 a very interesting account of the skulls of Polish fowls, not knowing of Bechstein's account, has disputed the accuracy of Blumenbach's statement. For Bechstein see 'Naturgeschichte Deutschlands' b. 3 1793 s. 399 note. I may add that at the first exhibition of Poultry at the Zoological Gardens in May 1845 I saw some fowls, called Friezland fowls, of which the hens were crested, and the cocks furnished with a comb.), who particularly attended to abnormal peculiarities in domestic animals, states, in 1805, that this was the case; and Bechstein had previously, in 1793 observed the same fact. This latter author has carefully described the effects on the skull of a crest not only in the case of fowls, but of ducks, geese, and canaries. He states that with fowls, when the crest is not much developed, it is supported on a fatty mass; but when much developed, it is always supported on a bony protuberance of variable size. He well describes the peculiarities of this protuberance; he attended also to the effects of the modified shape of the brain on the intellect of these birds, and disputes Pallas' statement that they are stupid. He then expressly remarks that he never observed this protuberance in male fowls. Hence there can be no doubt that this extraordinary character in the skulls of Polish fowls was formerly in Germany confined to the female sex, but has now been transferred to the males, and has thus become common to both sexes.
[EXTERNAL DIFFERENCES, NOT CONNECTED WITH THE SEXES, BETWEEN THE BREEDS AND BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL BIRDS.
The size of the body differs greatly. Mr. Tegetmeier has known a Brahma to weigh 17 pounds; a fine Malay cock 10 pounds; whilst a first-rate Sebright Bantam weighs hardly more than 1 pound. During the last 20 years the size of some of our breeds has been largely increased by methodical selection, whilst that of other breeds has been much diminished. We have already seen how greatly colour varies even within the same breed; we know that the wild G. bankiva varies slightly in colour; we know that colour is variable in all our domestic animals; nevertheless some eminent fanciers have so little faith in variability, that they have actually argued that the chief Game sub-breeds, which differ from each other in nothing but colour, are descended from distinct wild species! Crossing often causes strange modification of colour. Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that when buff and white Cochins are crossed, some of the chickens are almost invariably black. According to Mr. Brent, black and white Cochins occasionally produce chickens of a slaty-blue tint; and this same tint results, as Mr. Tegetmeier tells me, from crossing white Cochins with black Spanish fowls, or white Dorkings with black Minorcas. (7/59. 'Cottage Gardener' January 3, 1860 page 218.) A good observer (7/60. Mr. Williams in a paper read before the Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc. quoted in 'Cottage Gardener' 1856 page 161.) states that a first-rate silver-spangled Hamburgh hen gradually lost the most characteristic qualities of the breed, for the black lacing to her feathers disappeared, and her legs changed from leaden-blue to white: but what makes the case remarkable is, that this tendency ran in the blood for her sister changed in a similar but less strongly marked manner; and chickens produced from this latter hen were at first almost pure white, "but on moulting acquired black colours and some spangled feathers with almost obliterated markings;" so that a new variety arose in this singular manner. The skin in the different breeds differs much in colour, being white in common kinds, yellow in Malays and Cochins, and black in Silk fowls; thus mocking, as M. Godron (7/61. 'De l'Espece' 1859 page 442. For the occurrence of black-boned fowls in South America, see Roulin in 'Mem. de l'Acad. des Sciences' tome 6 page 351; and Azara, 'Quadrupedes du Paraguay' tome 2 page 324. A frizzled fowl sent to me from Madras had black bones.) remarks the three principal types of skin in mankind. The same author adds that, as different kinds of fowls living in distant and isolated parts of the world have black skin and bones, this colour must have appeared at various times and places.
The shape and carriage of the body, and the shape of the head differ much. The beak varies slightly in length and curvature, but incomparably less than with pigeons. In most crested fowls the nostrils offer a remarkable peculiarity in being raised with a crescentic outline. The primary wing- feathers are short in Cochins; in a male, which must have been more than twice as heavy as G. bankiva, these feathers were in both birds of the same length. I have counted, with Mr. Tegetmeier's aid, the primary wing- feathers in thirteen cocks and hens of various breeds; in four of them, namely in two Hamburghs, a Cochin, and Game bantam, there were 10, instead of the normal number 9; but in counting these feathers I have followed the practice of fanciers, and have NOT included the first minute primary feather, barely three-quarters of an inch in length. These feathers differ considerably in relative length, the fourth, or the fifth, or the sixth, being the longest; with the third either equal to, or considerably shorter than the fifth. In wild gallinaceous species the relative length and number of the main wing and tail-feathers are extremely constant.