312 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



clear neck barring. This intense under-barring 

 in the females will give the cockerels in the 

 progeny all the under-colour they will need, 

 and they will inherit the brilliant surface 

 colour from the male. One of the most im- 

 portant features in selecting the females for a 

 cockerel mating is to have them bred from a 

 long line of exhibition males. With this kind 

 of a cockerel mating you should produce a 

 large percentage of high quality males for 

 breeding and exhibition. 



" For the mating to produce exhibition 

 females, I select a male of medium light 

 colour with narrow, even barring throughout. 

 The wings and tail should be very clear in 

 barring and the under-colour should be clearly 

 defined in all sections. Select a male with low, 

 evenly serrated comb, yellow beak and legs, 

 long keel, with deep full breast, broad back 

 and low-spread tail. This male should have 

 high-class exhibition females for dam and 

 grand-dam as this is very important if we are 

 to secure the best possible results from the 

 mating. 



" The females in a pullet mating should be 

 high-class exhibition specimens of Standard 

 specimens of Standard size, with deep bodies, 

 full breasts, broad backs and low-spread tails. 

 Have them clear in under-barring throughout, 

 and with narrow straight bars in the neck sec- 

 tion and clear even barring in the wings and 

 tail. The ringy appearance in the surface 

 colour of the female is most desirable in show 

 specimens and in breeding birds. Do not use 

 a female because she is good in under-colour 

 unless she has the surface to make her attrac- 

 tive. A Barred Rock that does not show well 

 at sight is not suitable for the show room and 

 should not be considered a first-class breeding 

 bird. Select females with low, evenly serrated 

 combs, and with yellow legs. From such a 

 pullet mating you may reasonably expect a 

 large percentage of choice females. 



" For thirty years I have seen the Barred 

 Rocks improve in some characteristics and go 

 backward in others. The breeders of to-day 

 should keep in mind the practical qualities in 

 framing the Standard for the breed and should 

 request the judges in placing the awards on 

 Barred Rocks to give more attention to correct 

 type and surface colour and not to be misled 

 by intense under-barring. 



" The White Plymouth Rocks," writes Mrs. 

 Wilkinson, " are beyond doubt a pure variety, 

 owing their origin to sports from the Barred. 

 These have not been so frequent in England as 

 in America. They are believed to have been 

 first preserved and cultivated by a Mr. Frost, 



of )>Iaine, about 1880, and later they were 

 brought to about perfection by the late Mr. 

 Harry W. Graves, of Higganum, 

 White Conn., who won almost all the 



Kocks. prizes at Madison Square for a 



few years before his death. In 

 1905 Mr. Graves sold the champion male for 

 one thousand dollars, so there is no question 

 of the variety's popularity in America. 



" It is said that Whites are easier to breed 

 than the Barred variety. No doubt that is true to 

 some extent, but to breed a typical bird of pure 

 white with good orange yellow legs and beak, 

 with face, comb, earlobes and wattles red, is 

 difficult enough, and when attained the result is 

 truly a beautiful bird. White birds, as a rule, 

 have a tendency to straw colour or sun burn, 

 but White Rocks in the best strains have almost 

 overcome this and now rank amongst the most 

 perfected varieties in existence, especially so in 

 America, and also in one or two English yards. 

 White Rocks should correspond in shape and 

 size with Barred Rocks, and although not so 

 popular they possess better utility qualities. 



" Black Plymouth Rocks are also sports 

 from the Barred variety. It is seldom that a 

 cockerel is thus produced, but pullets are very 

 prevalent in some strains. A few 

 Black enthusiasts have bred them exclu- 



Rocks. sively and produced some hand- 



some specimens. They are of the 

 same shape and size as the Barred, and have a 

 good lustrous green-black colour with grand 

 yellow legs and beak ; bright bay eyes, red 

 face, comb, wattles and earlobes. The con- 

 trast is certainly very becoming, and, more- 

 over, the blacks are undoubtedly very good 

 layers and useful table fowls. They develop 

 more quickly than any other of the Rock 

 family, and yet have the smallest number of 

 followers amongst breeders who breed them 

 pure, though several breeders mate them up to 

 their Barred Rock cockerels to improve the 

 colour of the latter." 



There is also a Buff variety of the Plymouth 

 Rock now widely bred and exhibited, but 

 which obviously cannot be considered any true 

 descendant of the original. In the 

 Buff United .States its chief component 



Rocks. has undoubtedly been the Buff 



Cochin ; in England some of the 

 stock has come from America, but more owes 

 its origin chiefly to the Buff Orpington or 

 Lincolnshire Buff. There is little doubt that 

 the one " breed " was in England at first largely 

 bound up with the other, quite a number of 

 breeders exhibiting both, and putting a bird 

 into either class according to the colour of its 



