RELATION OF PLUMAGE TO OVARIAN CONDITION. l"Jl 



lower back had been entirely replaced, but new tail feathers had 

 not yet grown out. Fig. 4 shows distinctly the difference in the 

 old feathers on the right side of the neck and the new feathers 

 on the left side. The difference is even more marked on the lower 

 back, as shown in Fig. 5. In both locations the new feathers on 

 the left appear darker and are distinctly hen-feathers in shape 

 while the older feathers of the right side are lighter and elongated 

 like those of a cock. A careful comparison of the two sets of 

 feathers was made to ascertain how closely they resembled normal 

 feathers of the two sexes respectively. 



The American Standard of Perfection 1 stipulates that in the 

 ideal of the Barred Plymouth Rock breed, "the light and dark 

 bars [are] to be of equal width, in number proportionate to 

 length of feathers, and to extend throughout the length of feathers 

 in all sections of the fowl." Every breeder who has had any 

 experience with this breed of fowls knows that this standard is a 

 purely artificial one, for in any particular strain the males always 

 run lighter in color than the females (compare Figs. 2 and 3) 

 there being, as Pearl and Surface (1910, p. 47) remark, "actually 

 a sexual dimorphism in respect to plumage -color in Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks as they are ordinarily bred." This has driven 

 the fancier to a system of breeding commonly known as "double 

 mating," but which really means the carrying along side-by-side 

 of what are virtually two sub-varieties of the breed, one in which 

 the pullets are very dark and the cockerels approach the Stan- 

 dard requirements, and the other in which the pullets are about 

 medium and the cockerels much lighter. For showing in the 

 Standard classes males are chosen from the former line and 

 females to match them from the latter. The dark "cockerel 

 bred" pullets and the light "pullet bred" cockerels are sometimes 

 shown in entirely distinct classes as breeding stock. The male 8 

 and females of Standard color are not bred together, but each is 

 mated to selected birds of its own breeding. 



This fact was commented on a number of years ago by Spill- 

 man (1909), who suggested it would be wiser for the fancier to 

 endeavor to learn just the shade of difference which "nature 

 tries to produce between the sexes and then change the Standard 



1 Amer. Poult. Assn., 1915, p. 50. 



