The Book of the Hamburgs

Long before what we now call “fancy fowls” were known or recognized (in fact, long before the me­mory of any person now living), Hamburgs were kept and bred to feather among the peas-ants of Yorks­hire and Lancashire in England, and by them exhi­bit-ed at the small town and county fairs in their neighborhood. Of course they were then known un­der different names, the Blacks being called “Black Pheasant Fowls” and the Spangled varieties “Lan­cashire Mooneys” and “Yorkshire Pheasants”; whi­le such a variety as the Penciled Hamburgs were either wholly unknown or else were so little thou­ght of that they have left no record of their ori­gin, if, indeed, they are natives of England at all.