COURSE OF SELECTION. 



183 



unsystematic little side-efforts which leave no 

 permanent mark. And we must also work out 



such a course of breeding, or family 

 The Factors mating, as will protect us from 

 Breeding. those dangers which Mr. Darwin 



has so clearly explained. 

 The first of these factors will appeal most 

 directly to the eye and to our individual 

 choice, and we will take it first, beginning with 

 a little consideration respecting differences in 

 faults. There are many which a breeder half 

 anticipates, or dreads to see in his chickens, but, 

 when he does find them, puts down to his own 

 bad luck or want of skill There are others 

 which, if he found, he would not account for on 

 that ground, but would justifiably conclude that 

 he had been swindled as regards the stock itself 

 In Brahmas he may dread want of pencilling, 

 or colour, or striping, but he has no dread that 

 he will find a Cochin's single comb. Here, then, 

 is a difference, and it must have a cause. 

 Thinking over it — and every real breeder must 

 learn to think about things — he will discover 

 that the difference lies in this : That the pea- 

 comb has long been regarded as such an abso- 

 lute requirement in a Brahma, that for many 

 generations birds which did not possess it were 

 never bred from. It was not so once ; we can 

 remember single combs, which were figured 

 occasionally in the earlier books. But now, for 

 generations not one single link in the chain of 

 succession has ever been dropped as regards the 

 pea-comb, and every one of these generations 

 has added to its fixedness. Such an unbroken 

 chain of succession, in which parents, grand- 

 parents, great-grandparents, and so on, all add 

 their respective tendencies towards the desired 

 point, is therefore what we require to fix our 

 good points. 



Here of course the breeder's difficulty begins ; 

 for he has to keep up the continuous attention 

 and selection necessary for any particular 



point, consistently with the claims 

 Coui-se of of other points also wished for, the 

 Selection. whole being too seldom found 



together, in perfection. It is a hard 

 task enough ; still the true principle, and the 

 proper course, are quite clear, and utterly 

 opposed to such arbitrary and piecemeal work as 

 was alluded to above. He must first consider 

 all his principal desired " points " in regard to 

 their cotnparatiie difficulty and value. As a rule, 

 the difficulty of a point very much determines 

 its value, and it varies much. Some points are 

 obtained with comparative ease, and are readily 

 transmitted even from parents, so that a single 

 mating will produce them in a fair proportion 

 of chickens others will need years of work, and 



one unhappy mating may upset much work 

 already done. Comparing many breeds and 

 varieties, we have found that about four points 

 will in nearly all of them cover those which 

 cause real difficulty and require serious breeding 

 for, those beyond four giving little anxiety or 

 trouble. Let us consider these, therefore, and 

 suppose that, taking all things into account, we 

 have determined their order in difficulty and 

 value, to be expressed by the letters A, B, C, D. 

 The breeder must, then, take first of all the 

 point A, and if possible also B, and fastening his 

 attention chiefly upon these, keep it there ; in his 

 very first mating, and ever afterwards, giving of 

 course such heed as may be also possible to C, 

 and then to D and other less material features, 

 but always keeping as chief in his selections 

 first A and then B. Thus out of his first 

 produce the best are selected primarily in regard 

 to A and B ; next to these choosing from the 

 best in C and D also, but not allowing choice 

 for these to overcome the choice for A and B. 

 That is what we mean by our " course of 

 selection." 



As a corollary to this, for the first year or 

 two at least, the breeding must only be from a 

 few of the best. If, as is probable, more hens 

 are wanted merely as mates in a pen, they 

 should be of some variety which is distinguish- 

 able, or other means taken that their eggs are 

 not hatched with the others, such as the re- 

 cording nest-boxes presently mentioned. With- 

 out such precautions, where inferior hens of 

 the same variety are used, if the cock is first- 

 rate and of strong influence, or " prepotent " 

 (as such strong transmitting power is called), 

 they may " throw " a few good birds — the word 

 exactly expresses the chance nature of such a 

 result. The novice is apt to think this a clear 

 gain ; and in the sense that he may have a bird 

 or two more to sell, it perhaps is so ; but we 

 consider here only the breeding point of view. 

 From that, it will be seen that unless this chance 

 progeny can be clearly distinguished, and only 

 reserved for sale, it puts back the power and 

 value of his strain, and is a loss of ground and 

 valuable time ; since he may breed from some 

 of the birds thus produced, and then they 

 " throw back " or revert to their poorer parent, 

 and he has lost ground. At the earlier stages 

 especially, a man who really means to breed 

 good stock for himself can only afford to breed 

 from the best he has, even though it be a single 

 pair of birds ; such a pair are indeed, as we 

 will show presently, if absolutely healthy and 

 vigorous, of themselves sufficient to found a 

 strain. Neither can he afford to sell his really 

 best birds at an early period. Later on he may 



