_Gallus
bankiva,_ it will be worth while to describe in some detail the chief
points of difference. Beginning with the eggs and chickens, I will pass on
to the secondary sexual characters, and then to the differences in external
structure and in the skeleton. I enter on the following details chiefly to
show how variable almost every character has become under domestication.

_Eggs._--Mr. Dixon remarks[395] that "to every hen belongs an
individual peculiarity in the form, colour, and size of her egg, which
never changes during her life-time, so long as she remains in health,
and which is as well known to those who are in the habit of taking her
produce, as the handwriting of their nearest acquaintance." I believe
that this is generally true, and that, if no great number of hens be
kept, the eggs of each can almost always be recognised. The eggs of
differently sized breeds naturally differ much in size; but,
apparently, not always in strict relation to the size of the hen: thus
the Malay is a larger bird than the Spanish, but _generally_ she
produces not such large eggs; white Bantams are said to lay smaller
eggs than other Bantams;[396] white Cochins, on the other hand, as I
hear from Mr. Tegetmeier, certainly lay larger eggs than buff Cochins.
The eggs, however, of the different breeds vary considerably in
character; for instance, Mr. Ballance states[397] that his Malay
"pullets of last year laid eggs equal in size to those of any duck, and
other Malay hens, two or three years old, laid eggs very little larger
than a good-sized Bantam's egg. Some were as white as a Spanish hen's
egg, and others varied from a light cream-colour to a deep rich buff,
or even to a brown." The shape also varies, the two ends being much
more equally rounded in Cochins than in Games or Polish. Spanish fowls
lay smoother eggs than Cochins, of which the eggs are generally
granulated. The shell in this latter breed, and more especially in
Malays, is apt to be thicker than in Games or Spanish; but the
Minorcas, a sub-breed of Spanish, are said to lay harder eggs than true
Spanish.[398] The colour differs considerably,--the Cochins laying
buff-coloured eggs; the Malays {249} a paler variable buff; and Games a
still paler buff. It would appear that darker-coloured eggs
characterise the breeds which have lately come from the East, or are