THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



or cock in all points of head, shape, colour, 

 and plumage : the one point which may be 

 perhaps spared to save the pocket, is size, 

 which is not very important if his hens are 

 massive and large. The points need not be 

 repeated in detail, laying emphasis only 

 upon the colour of the white, which is all- 

 important. Nothing but vexation can come 

 of breeding from yellow birds, or any with 

 red about the back or shoulders ; and while 

 the exhibitor saves the colour of a good 

 bird all he can by keeping him out of the 

 sun, on the other hand, if in his choice for 

 breeding he can pick up one that has been 

 out a great deal in all weathers, and yet 

 kept his silvery colour, such an one is twice 

 the value. There are such birds, and there 

 is that difference in strains. This bird we 

 choose on his own merits, and no more need 

 be said. 



Of the hens to put with him, among all 

 the mixture of strains one important point 

 is that they be more or less of the same 

 cock-breeding strain : for this we have to 

 trust to personal knowledge or inquiry. 

 The only " points " that can be certainly 

 laid down are, that they must have good 

 heads with small neat combs, and solidly- 

 striped hackles. The body-colour of good 

 cock-breeders varies enormously. We have 

 seen some nearly black, others black pen- 

 cilled on brown, others covered with minute 

 microscopic pencilling, hardly visible, on a 

 dark slate-colour ; very rarely a really well- 

 pencilled blue-grey hen will breed good 

 cockerels, but generally the offspring of such 

 are spotted on breast. As a rule these 

 hens are pretty dark, and at least very 

 poorly marked ; and supposing they have 

 good hackles — that is one point which really 

 can be seen and is essential — the blood of 

 good exhibition birds in their veins is the 

 main thing. If the cock is short of shank- 

 feather, they must of course have abundance, 

 but that is obvious. In starting a new 

 strain, if the cock or cockerel is really good, 

 however poor the first year's produce may 

 be, breeding back to the cock the next 

 season will generally give an adequate reward, 

 and so on while line-breeding is carried on. 



The pullet-breeding pen will be entirely 

 different. Here we must select the females 

 from the exhibition point of view, at least as 

 regards colour and marking, and be especially 

 severe as regards breast-pencilling under the 

 very throat. It is an excellent plan to have 

 one or two birds rather darker than the rest in 

 starting a new pen, and to keep watch which 



hit the best. The great point is uniformity of 

 marking. It is very common to see good breasts 

 with cushion-markings so small as to be indis- 

 tinct ; or there may be a brown patch on the 

 wing. A hen which was clear as a pullet and 

 moulted clear, is especially valuable. If possible 

 select some striped hackles and some pencilled, 

 with a view to avoid getting the whole strain 

 pencilled all up the neck. Most pullets from a 

 clear ground strain, will have what may be 

 called partly-pencilled hackles, which moult 

 out more ipencilled still. Pullets of the darker 

 steel-grey type are much more easy to obtain 

 with properly striped hackles. The great faults 

 of the clear pullets at present are want of size, 

 and long narrow backs, and these faults should 

 as far as possible be avoided. 



The feathers photographed in Fig. 96 from 

 a prize bird of 1900, the specimens being sup- 

 plied by Mr. J. Martin Longe, represent the 

 exhibition type of that day, and it may 

 be interesting to compare them with those 

 shown in Fig- 95 of nearly thirty years before. 

 It will be seen that the pencilling has become 

 broader, and the bands, upon the whole, are 

 more solid and sharply defined. The two 

 hackles exhibit a greater and less degree of 

 pencilling, which increases in most birds the 

 second year, and is tending to increase more 

 and more as the pencilled strain is bred more 

 exclusively by itself. We have seen hackles in 

 some hens recently, and now and then even in 

 pullets, far more pencilled than this, and 

 with that straight-across barring (like that of a 

 Pencilled Hamburgh) which we have already 

 referred to in the case of Partridge Cochins. 

 The law of Nature appears to work out the 

 same way in all cases of breeding foi' purely 

 pencilled marking, and there is little doubt that 

 a straight-pencilled Brahma could be ultimately 

 produced, and perhaps one day may be the 

 accepted type of bird. 



In choosing the male bird, again we must 

 start with the condition that he be of the right 

 strain ; because even cock-breeding strains 

 occasionally produce a mottled or laced- 

 breasted cockerel, and such an one will not 

 answer. Supposing that, his chief points are 

 dense striping in his hackles, and all the better 

 if with a hair-line edge as in Fig. 93. This 

 should be free from white streak as drawn, and 

 the tolerance of white shaft or streak is the 

 chief cause of the prevalence of pencilled 

 hackles in the pullets, which may to some 

 extent be kept in abeyance by choosing solid 

 striping in the cockerels. The cape, or back 

 under the hackle, should be black feathers well 

 laced with white ; and the edges of the lacing 



