The flesh is excellent, but the body is small compared to that of the Dorking. They very seldom show any inclination to sit, and if they hatch a brood are bad nurses. The chickens are very delicate, and are best hatched at the end of April and during May. They do not feather till almost three-parts grown, and require a steady mother that will keep with them till they are safely feathered, and therefore the eggs should be set under a Dorking hen, because that breed remains longer with the chicks than any other. They almost always have white feathers in the flight of the wings, but these become black.
"In purchasing Spanish fowls," says an excellent authority, "blue legs, the entire absence of white or coloured feathers in the plumage, and a large white face, with a very large, high comb, which should be erect in the cock, though pendent in the hen, should be insisted on." Legginess is a fault that breeders must be careful to avoid.
The cockerels show the white face earlier than the pullets, and a blue, shrivelly appearance in the face of the chickens is a better sign of future whiteness than a red fleshiness. Pullets are rarely fully white-faced till above a year old. "The white face," says an excellent authority, "should always extend well around the eye, and up to the point of junction with the comb, though a line of short black feathers is there frequently seen to intrude its undesired presence. It is certainly objectionable, and the less of it the better; but any attempt to remove or disguise this eyesore should be followed by immediate disqualification." Some exhibitors of Spanish shave the down of the edges of the white-face, in order to make it smooth and larger. This disgraceful practice is not allowed at the Birmingham Show.
"One test of condition," says Mr. Baily, "more particularly of the pullets, is the state of the comb, which will be red, soft, and developed, just in proportion to the condition of the bird. While moulting—and they are almost naked during this process—the comb entirely shrivels up."
The White-faced White Spanish is thought to be merely a sport of the White-faced Black Spanish. But, whatever their origin may have been, they possess every indication of common blood with their Black relatives, and their claims to appear by their side in the exhibition room are as good as those of the White Cochins and the White Polish. The plumage is uniformly white, but in all other respects they resemble the Black breed. From the absence of contrast of colour shown in the face, comb, and plumage of the Black Spanish, the White variety is far less striking in appearance.
The Andalusian are so called from having been brought from the Spanish province of Andalusia. This breed is of a bluish grey, sometimes slightly laced with a darker shade, but having the neck hackles and tail feathers of a glossy black, with red face and white ears. The chickens are very hardy, and feather well, and earlier than the Spanish.
The Minorca is so called from having been imported from that island, and is a larger and more compactly-formed breed, resembling the Spanish in its general characteristics; black, with metallic lustre, but with red face, and having only the ear-lobes white; showing even a larger comb, and with shorter legs. They are better as table fowls than the Spanish, but the Andalusian are superior to either. The Minorca is the best layer of all the Spanish breeds, its chickens are tolerably hardy, and it is altogether far superior to the White-faced breed.
Ancona is a provincial term applied to black and white mottled, or "cuckoo," which on all other points resemble Minorcas, but are smaller.
The "Black Rot," to which Spanish fowls are subject, is a blackening of the comb, swelling of the legs and feet, and general wasting of the system; and can only be cured in the earlier stages by frequent purgings with castor oil, combined with warm nourishing food, and strong ale, or other stimulants, given freely. They are also subject to a peculiar kind of swelled face, which first appears like a small knob under the skin, and increases till it has covered one side of the face. It is considered to be incurable.