24S 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



and the other a striped. I have won scores of 

 times with pencilled hackles, but prefer the 

 striped hackle for a show hen ; but until you 

 get them to breed both in this way, you do 

 not get so many well-pencilled pullets. 



"The cocks to mate with these hens should 

 have a rich orange-coloured hackle, broadly 

 striped ivith black, with a few brown spots on his 

 breast, but not brown patches ; he should also be 

 just a little tinged with brown on his fluff, and 

 if his tail feathers have a very narrow edging 

 of brown or bay I like him all the better, as this 

 tends to breed pencilled tails in his pullets. The 

 hens should be chosen a little darker than is 

 required, as they will breed pullets lighter than 

 themselves in regard to the greater portion. I 

 have always chosen my breeding cocks from 

 one to two or three years old, and the hens 

 the same, and never breed from cockerels and 

 pullets. One reason is that I have had many 

 pullets that did not moult out as I should have 

 liked, and it is much safer to breed from those 

 hens which have improved in pencilling up to 

 one or two years old. 1 also choose my hens 

 and cocks (for breeding) with the shaft of the 

 feather almost black to the skin." 



Fig. 89 is photographed from feathers of this 

 old grouse strain, and will show the perfection 

 of its marking, the colour of these being almost 

 black on a light brown ground. But the 

 specimens have also been selected, out of 

 quite a number sent us by Mr. Southern, to 

 show how remarkably a strain bred for many 

 years for pencilling, without a cross, tends 

 gradually to approximate to the Hamburgh 

 type of pencilled marking, a feature much 

 in evidence to-day. The hackle of the mother 

 hen in Fig. 88 also shows this character 

 strongly. In Fig. 89 A and E are a breast 

 and cushion feather from the same hen, and 

 in the latter Hamburgh-like bands of pen- 

 cilling appear at the base of the feather. 

 But the tendency is shown still more strongly 

 in B, C, and D, which are all breast feathers ; 

 B from one, and C D both from another or 

 different pullet : the two last are specially 

 suggestive in regard to possibilities of pen- 

 cilling. 



The Brahma-crossed pullets, which are more 

 often seen, exactly resemble Brahma feathers 

 in the character of their marking ; and the 

 ground colour, though not yellow, generally 

 partakes of a brighter tinge approaching that 

 colour, while the marking really is black, and 

 varies from narrow markings to broad bands, as 

 in strains of Brahmas. What is said above as 

 to pencilling of the hackles also applies to these 

 birds, though marking so nearly approaching 



that of pencilled Hamburghs is rarely found 

 amongst them. Good pencilling should be 

 looked for in fluff and foot-feather, as well as on 

 the body and breast. The males for these 

 birds will have as a rule orange red hackles, 

 and should be marked on the breast and fluff, 

 the black feathers having either an edging or 

 lacing of brown, or a small pear-shaped tick at 

 the end of each breast feather : either will do, 

 provided, of course, the bird be of the pullet- 

 breeding strain, and have hackles densely and 

 sharply striped, especially on the saddle. If 

 there is a little fine black edging round the tips 

 of the hackles, as well as in the centre stripe, it 

 is none the worse for a pullet-breeding cockerel. 



Apart from the glossy black breast, and 

 dense black fluff and foot feather, which are now 

 expected in him, the exhibition Partridge cock 

 is deeper or richer in colour than the one for 

 pullet breeding. His hackles are preferred of a 

 deep reddish orange, or even red, while the 

 wing-bow and shoulders and back are of a 

 glossy red, almost crimson in tone. When the 

 condition is good and the gloss on the feather 

 is perfection, the upper part of a Partridge 

 cock is a gorgeous display of colour, which 

 hardly has a parallel in any other breed for 

 its beautiful waxy lustre and brilliance. 



To breed these birds it is no use now to use 

 exhibition or grouse-marked pullets. The male 

 must, of course, be chosen as perfect as possible 

 in all exhibition points, including Cochin 

 character as well as colour, the most common 

 fault in the latter being white in tail, which 

 clings to this breed with e.xtraordinary persist- 

 ence. The hens to mate with him are very dark 

 all over, the ground-colour of the feathers being 

 dark brown nearly as dark as roasted coffee, 

 covered over with very small and minute pencil- 

 ling, too close to be distinguishable as bands, 

 and almost black. The feathers of such a hen 

 are shown in Fig. 90, and the great difference 

 between them and the grouse-marked feathers 

 on p. 247 will be observed. These feathers very 

 often show a little white in the shaft, which does 

 not matter much ; and altogether it is very 

 obvious that this strain contains more than the 

 other of the older Partridge blood. The entire 

 bird is very dark and dull looking, and the 

 cushion feathers are often almost dull black, 

 except for a narrow lacing of the brown ground , 

 birds without that lacing breed cockerels not 

 bright enough. It does not of course follow that 

 all dark and dull-looking hens like this will 

 breed exhibition cockerels ; but if they are the 

 next relatives of such, and therefore of the 

 right blood, there will be little disappointment 

 after the strain has been bred a year or two. 



