History Of Roundhead Gamefowl
Sep 9th, 2008 | By Timothy A. Crane | Category: PetsSince all these breeds are straight comb, it would seem that Boston cock had very strong pea comb genes to give that characteristic to his offspring and descendants for generations to come to this day- after 100 yrs. or so.
You might ask about the Boston Roundheads that made the Allens. They arrived in the USA from Ireland without an ID tag. According to my sources, these fowl were known to be Irish Whitehackles-bred just like the more common English Whitehackles such as the North Britons, Earl of Derbies, and so on but many of the Irish had pea combs. The original Kearney (and Duryea) Irish Whitehackles had a % of pea combs as well as the Irish Whitehackles bred by my Irish friend John Tynan. I think he called them Queen Anne Whitehackles but I have forgotten for sure.
I have been in the sport.Of course Whitehackles the name comes from the old English custom of cutting the neck hackles near the skin so that the tails with a white under the pen in his neck would be a whitehackle.They arrived in the States United Ireland without an ID tag.American taps are today.You may arise on the Boston Roundheads who made the Allens.
However there are also Black Roundheads and Negro Roundheads and on and on. So now it is used more as a generic term for pea comb fowl than as the name of a specific breed. However, generally the name refers to the Allen and Shelton Roundheads (Shelton was Allen’s brother-in-law and they owned the fowl together). But another” however” the Allen Roundheads were breed and to a great extent developed by another old man-R.E. Walt. In fact in my younger days, most of the Roundhead gamefowl around OK. were referred to as RE Walt Roundheads instead of Allens.
There are jillions Oriental / American who peacomb cross and are called Roundheads which contain not a drop of the original Allen bloodline.So now it is used more as a generic term for poultry peas comb as the name of a race specific.
The pea comb Kelso fowl owe much of their good qualities to the George Smith Roundhead (same stock as Lundy Roundheads) that was blended with Claret to make the McClanahans that Walter Kelso used in his initial cross.
I have owned many, many “Roundhead” fowl over the past long yrs. I have been in the sport. I put the name in quotes because it refers (in the USA) to most any pea comb fowl that happens to be black breasted reds with white or yellow legs and that do not show too much of their Oriental lineage.
Remember after England colonized India, the English breeders had access to the best Oriental fowl such as Asil and even Japanese. These Oriental bloodlines were then added to the early English fowl of 500 yrs. or so ago that weighed only around 4 lbs.-about like the small Spanish cocks today. The Oriental crosses increased the size to around 5 lbs. or bigger, which most American cocks are today.