THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



they become quite black, the tail and sickles 

 also being black, unless the upper pair of black- 

 cock feathers are thinly laced with white : 

 white in the tail otherwise is a great blemish, 

 not uncommon the second year. The shoulders 

 and wing-bows are silvery white in old birds, 

 usually mixed with black in young ones, but 

 should be free from brown or red feathers : 

 the wing-coverts lorm a brilliant black bar 

 across the wing : the secondaries are white on 

 the outer web except a large spot at the end, 

 this and the inner web black, leaving the wing 

 very white : primaries black, with or without a 

 white edge on outer web. All the black feathers 

 of these upper parts should be brilliantly glossed, 



f^ig- 93- — Hackle of Dark Brahma Cock. 



Fig. 94.— Saddle Hackle of Cock. 



a green gloss being best, but a purple tinge 

 is not a very serious defect. The breast and 

 thighs and underparts are preferred solid black 

 in an exhibition bird, but small mottling on the 

 breast and lacing on the fluff, or fine white 

 lacing on breast and fluff, are in theory and 

 standard admissible, though practically they 

 seldom win : the shank-feather should mainly 

 correspond with the other underparts, but 

 with even a black breast, a little white there 

 is quite permissible. A real silvery whiteness 

 in the white, free from yellow or straw, is one 

 of the chief points in colour. The shanks 

 should be deep yellow or orange, but any 

 distinct yellow is sufficient. 



The colour of hens and pullets has varied 

 more than in any other breed. Up to about 

 1870 there were two distinct schools, Mr. Boyle 

 advocating a " dingy-white ground " closely 

 pencilled with dark steel-grey, and Mr. Lacy, 

 whose birds were usually largest in size, openly 

 preferring very dark brown pencillings on a 

 dark brown ground. This preference is his- 

 torically very significant, because Mr. Burnham 



has often asserted* that his birds were always 

 free from brown or any colour but fine steel- 

 grey ; while Mr. Lacy wrote us personally in 

 1S67, that he had then been breeding Brahmas 

 fifteen years, ten of which were in America . 

 he therefore bred them there from 1852 to 1862, 

 and either Burnham's must have been brown, 

 or there was, as early as 1852, other Dark 

 Brahma stock obtainable, which originated the 

 strain he brought over. For years Mr. Lacy 

 was a most successful exhibitor, and his birds 

 were used to cross Partridge Cochins as already 

 related ; but this absolutely brown Brahma 

 has now practically disappeared. For many 

 years now, the pencillings at least have always 

 been black or dark steel-grey, but 

 the ground-colour has varied greatly. 

 For a good while it was a grey 



= which had a slight tendency to 



, /> ^ brown on the sides, and usually 



'f/'/S''''' moulted rather browner in the hen ; 



while there was alsoe.xhibited almost 

 a slate or bluish ground, with black 

 markings, the two schools being 

 equally beautiful. The latter was 

 known as the blue-grey, and Fig. 95 

 represents a set of feathers from 

 one of the birds which won at 

 -^ Birmingham in 1871 : it will be 

 noticed that the markings are finer 

 than those photographed on a later 

 page from birds of igoo. Then 

 for a time the judges went for a 

 new marking which burst out 

 suddenly, broad green - black bands, on a 

 darkish ground with perceptible brown in it, 

 but the whole so rich as not to look the least 

 dingy. The colour would have passed well 

 enough, but the pullets themselves were quite 

 small birds, of no Asiatic shape at all, narrow 

 and weedy and nearly bare legged — there 

 simply never was such a farce in poultry-judg- 

 ing. After a few years of this, the judges threw 

 it over and went for a pale silver-grey pencilling : 

 these birds were better than the others, but 

 moulted very dingy, and also lacked substance : 

 this also could not last, and was succeeded 

 by the massive hocked type that has since 

 prevailed. 



The colour of the pullets now fashionable 

 is a pure grey ground colour with black or 

 nearly black pencillings, as nearly uniform as 

 possible all over the body, breast, back, wings, 

 fluff", and leg feather, with black tail and 

 striped hackles. This colour used generally to 

 show brown areas or patches, and moult brown 

 in the hens, but recently many birds are practi- 



* lo The China Fowl, and many places elsewhere. 



