Standard Varieties of Chickens:

Black Sumatra Games

Although a beautiful bird and possessing many fine points worthy the consideration of the fancier and breeder, the Black Sumatra Game is little known. They are gentle of disposition and attentive to their young. There is considerable comment against the Sumatra on account of its long flowing tail and apparent lack of pit qualities; but as to this those who have witnessed their defense of their mates and young differ. They may be slow in opening a conflict, but when occasion demands no bird can show a greater amount of staying powers than the Sumatras. In plumage they are a rich lustrous black throughout. The tail is long and drooping, with an abundance of long, flowing sickle feathers and coverts. This is a point which severs all connection with the Pit Game and places them in the front ranks of the ornamental breeds.

FOR FURTHER READING...

The first image below comes from the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal Science's Poultry Breeds pages. The second image is from the FeatherSite, "an on-line zoological garden of domestic poultry". The Sumatra page from Oklahoma and the Sumatras page from FeatherSite contain further information about this breed's history and more images of these fowl. Clicking on each image takes you to the page specifically about that particular variety.

Image Credits (from left to right): Copyright © 1996, Loren Hadley and the Oklahoma State University Board of Regents; Courtesy of Shahbazin

Please note: These links point to pages that are being served off of the Oklahoma State University's web server and off the cyborganic.net web server, which are not part of the Chickscope project. Because of this, the pages may be missing or corrupted, and control of this is generally out of the hands of the Chickscope development team.

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