The Scots Dumpy is a traditional Scottish breed of chicken. It is characterised by very short legs, so short that the body is a few centimetres from the ground; as in other breeds of creeper chicken, this chondrodystrophy is caused by a recessive lethal allele. The Dumpy has at times been known by other names, among them Bakie, Corlaigh, Crawler, Creeper and Stumpy.[8][9] There are both standard-sized and bantam Scots Dumpies.[3][10] It is one of two Scottish breeds of chicken, the other being the Scots Grey.
 Dumpies at the Metropolitan Poultry Show in Baker Street, London, Christmas 1852; wood engraving from: William Wingfield, The Poultry Book, 1853 | |
| Conservation status | |
|---|---|
| Other names |
|
| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Standard | PCGB |
| Use | |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Egg colour | white or cream-coloured[5]: 277 |
| Classification | |
| EE | not recognised[6] |
| PCGB | soft feather: light[7] |
| |
History
editThe Scots Dumpy is a traditional Scottish breed; short-legged birds of this type have been bred in Scotland for more than two centuries.[9] Some were introduced to England in the mid-nineteenth century, and were first shown at the Metropolitan Poultry Exhibition in Baker Street in London in 1852.[9][11]: 222 In 1854 John Fairlie of Cheveley Park in Cambridgeshire showed some at the Cheltenham Poultry Show in Cheltenham.[12]: 386 It later became one of the rarest British breeds. In 1975 a search for surviving stock in Scotland was unsuccessful. Two years later a dozen birds were imported from Kenya, descendants of a small flock taken there in 1902 in the dowry of Violet Mabel Carnegie, and used to re-constitute the breed.[9][13]: 424
In 2009 it was listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as "at risk", the lowest of the four levels of endangerment the RBST assigned to poultry at that time.[2]
Characteristics
editThere is no set colour for the Scots Dumpy, which is usually cuckoo, black or white; the breed standard allows any colour standardised in other breeds.[4]: 262 The comb is single and bright red. The ear-lobes are small, the wattles of medium size; they and the face are also bright red.[4]: 264 [a] The eyes are red in the white and cuckoo varieties, dark in the black.[4]: 264
The legs are abnormally short, the shanks no longer than 3.75 cm (1.5 in), so the birds have an unusual waddling or swimming gait. They are otherwise normal in all respects, with a long heavy low-set body, deep breast, broad back, and well-arched tail. They have four toes.[4]: 262
Use
editScots Dumpy hens lay about 180 white or cream-coloured eggs per year.[5]: 277 [13]: 423 They are good sitters, and have been used to hatch clutches of game-bird eggs.[13]: 423
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, D. Pilling (eds.) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Accessed January 2017.
- ^ a b Watchlist – Poultry. Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Archived 19 December 2009.
- ^ a b Scots Dumpy / United Kingdom (Chicken). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Victoria Roberts (2008). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, sixth edition. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 9781405156424.
- ^ a b J. Ian H. Allonby, Philippe B. Wilson (editors) (2018). British Poultry Standards: complete specifications and judging points of all standardized breeds and varieties of poultry as compiled by the specialist breed clubs and recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, seventh edition. Chichester; Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781119509141.
- ^ Liste des races et variétés homologuée dans les pays EE (28.04.2013). Entente Européenne d’Aviculture et de Cuniculture. Archived 16 June 2013.
- ^ Breed Classification. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Archived 12 June 2018.
- ^ Chickens: Soft Feather Light. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Archived 25 October 2018.
- ^ a b c d Watchlist: Poultry: Scots Dumpy. Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Archived 11 January 2010.
- ^ Scots Dumpy (miniature) / United Kingdom (Chicken). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2019.
- ^ William Wingfield, George William Johnson, Harrison Weir (illustrator) (1853). The Poultry Book: comprising the characteristics, management, breeding and medical treatment of Poultry. London: Wm. S. Orr and Co.
- ^ [s.n.] (21 June 1854). The Cheltenham Poultry Show. The Poultry Chronicle, pages 384–387.
- ^ a b c Janet Vorwald Dohner (2001). The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds. New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300088809.
- ^ John Lawrence, L.A. Meall (editor) (1854). Moubray's Treatise on Domestic and Ornamental Poultry, revised edition. London: Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co.