246 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



as may a pullet a little ticked in her hackle or 

 dark in tail. There is so much tendency to 

 " breed lighter," that these faults are far less 

 troublesome than white under-colour, or any 

 approach to " meal" on the surface. 



Another point to be borne in mind, is to 

 breed so far as possible from darker birds than 

 the progeny are desired. One only has to mate 

 two really pale buffs, to get chickens with a 

 great deal of absolute white in them : that 

 shows the tendency in this colour. If hens and 

 pullets can be selected on the dark side, all the 

 better ; and even then the cock or cockerel 

 should be decidedly dark — he may even be 

 almost a rich red. This is still more essential if 

 the females are not dark. But whatever colour 

 the birds are, they must be even all over if the 

 result is to be good, mottled or uneven colour in 

 different parts being strongly hereditary. Even 

 colour is, if anything, still more important in 

 the male bird than in the female. One form of 

 unevenness in colour is lacing on the feathers, 

 with either lighter or darker buff, especially on 

 the breast or wings. We have often thought 

 that the darker lacing, which is most common, 

 might easily be developed with care into a very 

 beautiful variety ; but in breeding for self-colour 

 at least, it must be carefully avoided, being very 

 apt to perpetuate itself 



Thirty years back the fashion in buffs was 

 for what were called lemons, the under-parts 

 being a rather pale yellow buff, while the 

 hackles were a bright lemon. At the present 

 time a rich medium shade of colour is preferred 

 for the cockerels, although in the pullets the 

 paler shades are tolerated at least by some 

 judges. This variance of colour is the result 

 of breeding the two sexes from separate pens. 

 Birds have been shown almost bricky in colour ; 

 but of late some signs have been manifest of a 

 disposition to regard with more favour again 

 the brighter orange and lemon shades. 



Buff chickens usually become darker in 

 colour with the adult plumage, and in their first 

 feathers often show a mottled and pale surface, 

 which is very disappointing, but which moults 

 out all right. This is rather curious in con- 

 nection with the necessity for depth of colour 

 in the parents, and must be borne in mind. 

 Chickens which look dark enough in their 

 chicken feathers, will very often moult too dark. 

 This is to be remembered, and if they are bred 

 from good parentage, such light chickens should 

 not be discarded. After one season's rearing of 

 his own birds, if from good stock, a breeder 

 new to Buffs will know about what to expect 

 in this way, and be able to do his weeding 

 accordingly. 



Partridge Cochins have gone down very 

 much during the past ten years ; why, is not 

 easy to explain. In the early 'nineties Messrs. 

 Mead, Woods and Holland kept the 

 Partridge colour very much to the front, but 

 Cochins. with their demise the colour lost 



popularity. They have seen great 

 changes since the early days, most of Mr. 

 Punchard's early cocks having been brown in 



Fig. 88.— Partridge Hen's Hackle Feathers. 



breast. Black was however preferred, and we 

 have been told by several old breeders who 

 remember those early days, including the writer 

 of the following notes, that the origin of the 

 black breast was a cross with Mr. Lacy's brown 

 Brahmas of that time, which also tended to 

 improve the marking of the hens. Most of the 

 early Partridge hens were light brown, finely 

 pencilled with dark brown, the shaft of the 

 feather showing white over most of the body. 

 Along with these were shown hens known as 

 grouse, from their solid grouse pencilling with- 

 out any streak in the shaft of the feather ; some 

 of these being distinctly traced to the cross 

 mentioned just above. The streaky- feathered 

 hens have since died out, and the grouse- 

 feathered type, more or less modified, is the 

 modern Partridge Cochin, with a black-breasted 

 cock as show companion. The grouse marking 

 was gradually bred to great perfection, and 

 about 1868 — the precise year is difficult to 

 ascertain — there wis introduced another cross 



