THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



make and maintain a reputation, cannot afford 

 this. The matter is very simply illustrated. 

 Let us suppose he can manage to rear really 

 well for the show pen two dozen full-grown 

 chickens, and no more, besides what adult 

 stock he must hold over for next season's opera- 

 tions. A novice will probably hatch about 

 forty, and after losing half a dozen, weed out 

 barely a dozen more of the worst. He cannot 

 expect much from the rest, for the first year or 

 two. But the experienced breeder, even with 

 better-matched stock, would act differently. 

 He would hatch at least sixty, and very likely 

 eighty, birds, killing a fair proportion as soon 

 as their very first feathers, at a fortnight old, 

 told him they would be no good ; and then, at 

 a still early period, he would kill half the re- 

 mainder. Keeping only the pick, he can hatch 

 more. Later on, when his breeding has become 

 more certain, he can be less severe ; but experi- 

 enced breeders will weed out much earlier and 

 more severely than novices can find it in their 

 hearts to do. Another reason for doing it 

 pretty rigorously is that a run containing only 

 pretty good birds has a wonderfully more 

 pleasing effect than another consisting partly 

 of inferior specimens, and also assists in that 

 training of the eye to perceive and demand 

 excellence, which is perhaps the real secret of 

 permanent success. In each Standard of Per- 

 fection that accompanies the descriptive text on 

 the respective breeds, a list of defects which 

 disqualify a bird as an exhibition specimen is 

 given. This the novice poultry fancier should 

 peruse carefully ere commencing his first " weed- 

 ing," since these defects are generally apparent 

 at an early stage of a fowl's development. 



The chickens thus drafted should also be 

 sorted into lots of approximate age ; especially 

 should a young lot of cockerels not be intro- 

 duced amongst an older lot already possessing 

 the ground. They would in that case never be 

 free from persecution, or get their share of 

 food, and the wings of Asiatics would prob- 

 ably _ be spoilt. First possessors generally 

 remain masters of a run, therefore all its in- 

 tendecl tenants should be introduced together. 

 All will then shake down speedilv, and if a 

 full-grown cock can be turned in with a lot of 

 cockerels, it will be all the better. 



There are few subjects less understood by 

 the beginner in poultry keeping 

 Newr°^ than the colouration of newly- 

 HaTched hatched pure-bred chickens, and 'it 



Chickens. IS not infrequent that the lack of 

 this knowledge is the cause of 

 much acrimonious correspondence between the 

 purchasers and sellers of sittings of eggs. It 



is widely thought that the colour of a 

 chicken's down should be an indication of the 

 pigment as it should appear in an adult of 

 the same variety ; and that the bird's colour 

 changes with the phases of growth is never 

 supposed. The following general descrip- 

 tion of the appearance of newly-hatched 

 chickens by Mr. F. J. Broomhead may there- 

 fore save many such disputes and also con- 

 siderable an.xiety to novices : " In the black 

 varieties of all breeds, Orpingtons, Cochins, 

 Wyandottes, Leghorns, Minorcas, Langshans, 

 La Bresse, Hamburghs, etc. , the newly-hatched 

 chicken is black and white, or creamy, the 

 former colour often being less conspicuous than 

 the latter ; indeed, a chicken of a black variety 

 that comes out of its shell entirely black will 

 almost invariably never be a brilliantly- 

 coloured adult, and it is well known among 

 breeders that the greater amount of white on 

 the breast and round the head, the better will 

 be the lustre of the final plumage. The white 

 will be frequently found on the flights and 

 secondary feathers, about the throat and head, 

 and on the breast and under parts. In white 

 varieties that have yellow legs, such as white 

 Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks, the chickens 

 often present a creamy, or even canary, tinge, 

 some white Rock chickens being of a grey 

 or bluish colour iDut it will be found that such 

 chickens as they mature come more free from 

 sappiness (a pale primrose tint) than those that 

 are pure white at birth. In barred fowls, like 

 the Plymouth Rock, the downy chicken gives 

 no sign of marking, being somewhat similar to 

 the young of black poultry ; it is what may be 

 described as dark greyish-black and white or 

 creamy white, the black being mostly on the 

 back. As the down is cast, the barring gener- 

 ally comes first across the shoulders, then over 

 the crop and down the breast. The buff 

 Orpington day-old chicken will be of a buff or 

 yellow tint, with a soft reddish-yellow ochre 

 tinge in leg colour, the white shanks ofteii not 

 appearing until the bird is several weeks old. 

 Occasionally, in some buff breeds, there may 

 be ticks of black in the down, some buff Leg- 

 horn chickens having been known to show 

 indications of stripes on their backs. In 

 chickens of the black-red varieties, where 

 brown predominates in the plumage of the 

 hen, and black and red in that of the male, 

 such as partridge Cochins and W\'andottes, 

 brown Leghorns, black-red Game and Indian 

 Game, the colouration is almost identical. It 

 consists of a wide stripe of reddish-brown or 

 maroon, running from the base of the beak, 

 over the head, and down the back to the tail, 



