This variety of fowl has frequently been known to lose nearly all the feathers in its body, besides the usual quantity on the neck, wings, and tail; and, if they moult late, and the weather is severe, they feel it much. This must often happen in the case of an "everlasting layer;" for if the system of a bird is exhausted by the unremitting production of eggs, it cannot contain within itself the material for supplying the growth of feathers. They have not, even yet, become acclimated in this country, since continued frost at any time is productive of much injury to their combs; frequently causing mortification in the end, which at times terminates in death. A warm poultry-house, high feeding, and care that they do not remain too long exposed to severe weather, are the best means of preventing this disfigurement. Some birds are occasionally produced, handsomely streaked with red on the hackle and back. This is no proof of bad breeding, if other points are right. The chickens are large, as would be expected from such eggs, entirely shining black, except a pinafore of white on the breast--in which respect they are precisely like the Black Polish chickens--and a slight sprinkling under the chin, with sometimes also a little white round the back and eyes; their legs and feet are black. Many of them do not get perfectly feathered till they are three-fourths grown; and, therefore, to have this variety come to perfection in a country where the summers are much shorter than in their native climate, they must be hatched early in spring, so that they may be well covered with plumage before the cold rains of autumn. There is, however, a great lack of uniformity in the time when they get their plumage; the pullets are always earlier and better feathered than the cockerels--the latter being generally half naked for a considerable time after being hatched, though some feather tolerably well at an early age. The _Black_ is not the only valuable race of Spanish fowl; there is, also, the _Gray_, or _Speckled_, of a slaty gray color, with white legs. Their growth is so rapid, and their size, eventually, so large, that they are remarkably slow in obtaining their feathers. Although well covered with down when first hatched, they look almost naked when half-grown, and should, therefore, be hatched as early in spring as possible. The cross between the Pheasant-Malay and the Spanish produces a particularly handsome fowl. As early pullets, for laying purposes in the autumn and winter after they are hatched, no fowls can surpass the Spanish. They are believed, also, to be more precocious in their constitution; and consequently to lay at an earlier age than the pullets of other breeds. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DOMESTIC FOWLS. Fowls are classed by modern naturalists as follows: DIVISION. _Vertebrata_--possessing a back bone. CLASS. _Aves_--birds. ORDER. _Rasores_--scrapers. FAMILY. _Phasianidæ_--Pheasants. GENUS. _Gallus_--the cock.