The size of the body differs greatly. Mr. Tegetmeier has known a Brahma to weigh 17 pounds; a fine Malay cock 10 pounds; whilst a first-rate Sebright Bantam weighs hardly more than 1 pound. During the last 20 years the size of some of our breeds has been largely increased by methodical selection, whilst that of other breeds has been much diminished. We have already seen how greatly colour varies even within the same breed; we know that the wild G. bankiva varies slightly in colour; we know that colour is variable in all our domestic animals; nevertheless some eminent fanciers have so little faith in variability, that they have actually argued that the chief Game sub-breeds, which differ from each other in nothing but colour, are descended from distinct wild species! Crossing often causes strange modification of colour. Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that when buff and white Cochins are crossed, some of the chickens are almost invariably black. According to Mr. Brent, black and white Cochins occasionally produce chickens of a slaty-blue tint; and this same tint results, as Mr. Tegetmeier tells me, from crossing white Cochins with black Spanish fowls, or white Dorkings with black Minorcas. (7/59. 'Cottage Gardener' January 3, 1860 page 218.) A good observer (7/60. Mr. Williams in a paper read before the Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc. quoted in 'Cottage Gardener' 1856 page 161.) states that a first-rate silver-spangled Hamburgh hen gradually lost the most characteristic qualities of the breed, for the black lacing to her feathers disappeared, and her legs changed from leaden-blue to white: but what makes the case remarkable is, that this tendency ran in the blood for her sister changed in a similar but less strongly marked manner; and chickens produced from this latter hen were at first almost pure white, "but on moulting acquired black colours and some spangled feathers with almost obliterated markings;" so that a new variety arose in this singular manner. The skin in the different breeds differs much in colour, being white in common kinds, yellow in Malays and Cochins, and black in Silk fowls; thus mocking, as M. Godron (7/61. 'De l'Espece' 1859 page 442. For the occurrence of black-boned fowls in South America, see Roulin in 'Mem. de l'Acad. des Sciences' tome 6 page 351; and Azara, 'Quadrupedes du Paraguay' tome 2 page 324. A frizzled fowl sent to me from Madras had black bones.) remarks the three principal types of skin in mankind. The same author adds that, as different kinds of fowls living in distant and isolated parts of the world have black skin and bones, this colour must have appeared at various times and places.