THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



into this matter has been a conviction that 

 the chief cause of the difficulty now is the 

 introduction of either Buff Plymouth Rock, 

 or of. stock into which that blood has been 

 introduced. 



For the following notes we are also 

 indebted to Mr. W. Richardson: — 



" I showed my first White Orpingtons as 

 Albions at the Dairy Show, I think, in igoo, 

 and the only White Orpingtons that were 

 known before that time were some 

 White rose-comb birds which were evi- 



Orpingtons. dentlv a cross of White Dorkings 

 and White Leghorns, showing little 

 of the true Orpington characteristics. The 

 birds I showed were pure sports from Buff 

 Orpingtons, and, of course, were similar in 

 type except for their white colour, and I pro- 

 cured these four white sports as chickens from 



Albions. 



At rKhxbiitd at the Dairy Show in 1900. 



the same farm in Lincolnshire whereon I saw 

 the Buff Orpingtons. I had myself bred 

 a white chicken (a pullet) from my buffs the 

 year before, but sold it, as single-comb White 

 Orpingtons had not then been heard of. 

 I agreed to change the name from ' Albion ' 

 to ' Orpington,' as several fanciers who had 

 taken them up thought they would go better 

 as such, especially as they were sports from 

 buffs. 



" The birds I had at first were rather small, 

 but of good type for those days, and per- 

 fectly white, and my stock to-day are directly 

 descended from them without any other cross. 

 I once crossed a White Plymouth Rock cock 

 with two or three pullets, but the result was 

 so disappointing that I killed all the chickens 

 to make sure that they did not get mixed with 

 my original whites. 



" The White Orpington has one or two 

 faults in breeding, but these are not very 



troublesome to overcome. One is that they 

 throw a few yellow-legged chickens, a defect 

 not due to a cross, as the original Buff Orping- 

 ton that they sported from did the same. 

 Anotlrer defect is that some White Orpingtons 

 come with a creamy oi sappy colour in their 

 feathers, but I find a very small proportion 

 now in the total of the chickens. Birds are 

 also shown, especially hens and pullets, with 

 blue legs, which is very objectionable, and I 

 think due to some out cross. I have also seen 

 a few specimens with green or willow legs. 

 There is little doubt that when the single-comb 

 White Orpington was first brought out that it 

 became so popular that it \wd^s impossible to 

 breed enough birds to supply the orders, and 

 many people tried to produce them from 

 various crosses. These attempts at short cuts, 

 of course, led to many faults in the birds thus 

 bred that my original birds never had. Others 

 may have had odd sports from their buffs, and 

 I have heard that there were white sports from 

 the Black Orpington some years before the 

 White Orpington was before the public, but I 

 never saw any. 



" One thing is important, and that is to be 

 able to distinguish between a sappy bird and 

 one that has been turned a bit yellow on the 

 top by the sun or weather. Exposure of this 

 kind only affects the hard part of the feather 

 in the hackles of the cocks and on their wing 

 bows and saddles and the hackles of the hens. 

 Sap, however, shows all through the feathers to 

 the skin. Some birds, indeed, look as if they 

 had been dusted with yellow sulphur. It should 

 also be remembered that white birds are easily 

 stained by being bedded down with oak saw- 

 dust or straw, as when either these or the birds 

 get damp their plumage becomes discoloured, 

 and this is very annoying as it is impossible to 

 get it out. 



" The White Orpington cock should be a 

 large massive bird of the same type as the 

 Buff and Black, and should have clean ivory 

 white legs with as little pink showing in them 

 as possible. His colour should be snow white, 

 and the feathers should be dense and of a nice 

 silky texture. His comb wattles and ear-lobes 

 should be bright red and medium size. The 

 comb should be evenly serrated, straight, and 

 free from side spikes ; his eye should be red, 

 and he should be free from sap in the feathers 

 or a pink shade on the wing bow. Whites 

 throw a few feathers with a little black or buff 

 in them, but as a rule very slightly, and it is 

 not of much consequence. 



"The hen should be the same as the Black 

 and Buff Orpingtons, massive and cobby. 



