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In my last contribution on Belgian Bearded Bantams I promised to give some particulars as to their origin. I am sorry to say my friend Monsieur de Bruycker was too ill to reply to my queries, but deputed Monsieur Delin who is an old enthuisiast of the breed, and who judged them at the Crystal Palace Show of 1913, to answer my letter for him. He says: “The origin of the breed is imperfectly known. Charles Jacque, the French artist (1813-94), in his book on poultry le Poullailler, written in 1860, gives a good description of it and a plate of a feather, neatly barred with five stripes (coucou). According to this author, they are a Netherlands breed, Belgium and Holland.”
The late Louis Van der Snickt, in his remarkable work on continental, and especially Belgian breeds, writes: “The Barbus were imported at the end of the seventeenth century by navigators from the Sunda and Malaya isles to the port of Antwerp, from which they were given their name.” Van der Snickt founded his opinions on documents of that time. They were known then, as since twenty years ago, only in coucou, black and golden varieties. The golden were perfected as quails.
I am sure my readers will greatly appreciate the kindness of Monsieur Delin in taking the trouble to write the foregoing account of the origin of the breed, but it still leaves us wondering a little in certain details.
 Poreclain |
 Millefleur |
 Mottled |
 Lavender |
 Quail |
