THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



ago, though too dark for present fashion ; but a 

 majority of the cockerels would be either laced 

 with white on the breast or have white ticks at 

 the tips of the feathers there. This, then, is the 

 type of cockerel which corresponds with the 

 type of pullet sought, while the darker pullets 

 approximate to the type of cockerel sought. It 

 is but natural for the breeder to mate up his 

 exhibition or black-breasted cockerels with the 

 darker females, though deficient in marking, for 

 cockerel breeding ; while with his best-marked 

 and lighter pullets he mates a ticked or laced 

 cockerel for pullet breeding. If he will insist 

 upon such strong contrast, he must do so ; but 

 one cannot but reflect how much better it would 

 be to recognise a nicely laced or evenly ticked 

 breast in the cockerel, as was once the case ; for 

 the practical result is that any variety, when 

 thus treated to excess, becomes practically tivo 

 breeds instead of one, to the confusion of the 

 novice, the inconvenience of those who have not 

 space enough for both, and the driving of 

 many out of that particular breed altogether. 



As an e.xample of the opposite tendency, to 

 obliterate natural sexual differences, the barred 

 Plymouth Rock may be cited. This fowl has 

 now been bred for close upon forty years, and 

 all experience shows that the natural correla- 

 tion of the sexes is for the cockerel to show a 

 much lighter as well as more narrowly barred 

 plumage than the female, which is by compari- 

 son coarser in marking and darker in colour. 

 Not much has yet been done as regards scale of 

 marking, though some progress has been made 

 in giving the females a smaller pattern ; but 

 persistent efforts have always been made to 

 lighten the females and darken the males. From 

 this upset of the natural relations we again 

 encounter the necessity for double matings, if 

 the best results are to be produced in the 

 greatest numbers. The laced Wyandottcs, of 

 all colours, in which the natural relation is for 

 the cocks tobe much darker on breast and less 

 open in lacing than the females, furnish an- 

 other instance of the craving of the fancier to 

 obtain uniformity in the face of natural differ- 

 ences, which has similarly involved a system 

 of double mating. 



Other instances, and their details, must be 

 left to their proper places, but two general 

 remarks may be added on this subject. We see 

 first the need there may be to pre- 

 Evilsof serve a line of cockerels in the 



Double female strain, or vice versa. The 



Matings. manner of doing this has been 

 already described and illustrated by 

 reference to Mr. Fekh's chart. Secondly, how- 

 ever, it must be insisted upon, and is self- 



evident, that although it may be made necessary 

 by the demands of the fancier, such a system 

 of double matings is in itself a sore evil, and 

 every effort should be made to keep it within 

 bounds. The male and female lines should not, 

 if possible, be allowed to become absolutely 

 divorced or separated, as it is in some cases. 

 Much can often be done if really attempted 

 and carried on through systematic line-breeding 

 from one strain of blood. In the very year 

 before these lines were written, at the Crystal 

 Palace Show, we happen to know that the 

 second-prize Dark Brahma hen, the second-prize 

 adult cock, and the first-prize pullet, stood to 

 each other in the relations of grandmother, her 

 son, and her grand-daughter in the same line- 

 bred family, though the cock was not available 

 for exhibition imtil he had moulted out black. 

 One means by which this object may some- 

 times be at least partially secured is to mate a 

 cock or cockerel with hens or pullets of two or 

 more types. It is often done by some breeders 

 merely as a speculation. They hope that if one 

 hen does not " hit " with the male, another per- 

 haps may do so. This does, in fact, often occur, 

 and is another good reason for starting a Felch 

 chart with a pen of females. If the eggs and 

 chicks are identified, the bird or birds which 

 "nick" best can be preserved, and the others 

 and their progeny discarded. We are not, how- 

 ever, referring to that, but to more systematic 

 procedure, as when a Dark Brahma cockerel, 

 ticked as a cockerel but moulted black on breast 

 his second year, is mated to one or two pullets 

 of fashionable light ground colour, and one or 

 two much darker birds. Such a mating may 

 very likely produce some good pullets from the 

 first lot, and some good cockerels from the 

 second ; but there are many cases where it is 

 not practicable, as failing to produce the 

 present recognised standards. 



For many of the reasons or purposes re- 

 ferred to in the preceding paragraphs it is 

 often needed to know not only the pen from 



which any chicken is bred, but the 

 Recording hcn which is the mother. People 

 Nest-Boxes, constantly about, with only a few 



fowls, soon get to know the z^^ of 

 each bird ; but with careful breeders for several 

 years past there has been increasing use of 

 what are termed "recording," "registering," or 

 trap nest-boxes. These are so arranged that 

 the hen can enter, but her entering closes the 

 door behind her, and there she remains till she 

 is liberated, when her number or name is noted. 

 Mr. A. Silberstein was probably the first to 

 design such a nest-box, and sold his pattern 



