the strains of the brown-breasted red Game. The hen of the
"duck-winged Game" is "extremely beautiful," and differs much from the hens
of all the other Game sub-breeds; but generally, as with the blue and grey
Game and {252} with some sub-varieties of the pile-game, a moderately close
relation may be observed between the males and females in the variation of
their plumage.[405] A similar relation is also evident when we compare the
several varieties of Cochins. In the two sexes of gold and silver-spangled
and of buff Polish fowls, there is much general similarity in the colouring
and marks of the whole plumage, excepting of course in the hackles, crest,
and beard. In spangled Hamburghs, there is likewise a considerable degree
of similarity between the two sexes. In pencilled Hamburghs, on the other
hand, there is much dissimilarity; the pencilling which is characteristic
of the hens being almost absent in the males of both the golden and silver
varieties. But, as we have already seen, it cannot be given as a general
rule that male fowls never have pencilled feathers, for Cuckoo Dorkings are
"remarkable from having nearly similar markings in both sexes."

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,[406] 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.[407] The cocks, {253} though dressed in the feathers of the hen,
"are high-spirited birds, and their courage has been