Latterly much attention has been paid to this variety, and the result has been that great improvements in their size and good qualities have been effected. The engraving represents one of the old birds, of whom it has been truly said, “Their qualities surpass their charms.” In the improved kinds the head is smaller, the under part of the breast fuller, and the carriage of the bird more elegant, the body being more compact; the feathers are also firmer, and I have found along with this latter character that the birds are hardier and less subject to diseases of the egg organs. Dorkings vary very much in colour, and there is some difficulty in breeding them true to any marking. My own opinion is decidedly in favour of the dark birds, both as to appearance and hardiness, and I think there are no more noble fowls than a heavy, broad-chested, dark Dorking cock and a compact short-legged hen. Dorkings are bred with both single and double, or rose combs, but the former are generally preferred, on the score of appearance. In purchasing Dorkings for stock, broad compact bodies and short white legs, with five toes on each foot, should be regarded as indispensable; the weight of these birds varies very considerably; in the pens which have taken prizes at the recent poultry shows the cocks have usually weighed about ten, and the hens eight pounds, but these weights are beyond the average, and such birds are not generally to be obtained. The white Dorkings, although exceedingly ornamental, are not of equal value in an economical point of view, being much smaller in size, and narrower and longer in the body; they are almost invariably bred with a rose or double comb, and are obviously a distinct variety from the coloured Dorking, the latter having evidently derived its size, aptitude to fatten, and other profitable characteristics from the large Surrey fowl, which differs only from what is now known as the colored Dorking, in the absence of the fifth toe.