3i« 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY 



the former. Unfortunately a great difficulty pre- 

 sents itself in breeding good open-centred laced 

 Wyandottes, for in the endeavour to increase 

 the volume of white, not only have the black 

 lacings narrowed (which is desirable), but they 

 have lost considerably in intensity of black, and 

 we seldom find an open-centred bird whose 

 lacings are not inclined to grey. 



" 4. The mossy feather is the bite noire of all 

 silver and gold laced Wyandotte pullet breeders. 

 Instead of the feather having a clear white 

 centre, it is peppered with black or grey ticks 

 (Fig. 104), destroying entirely the essential re- 

 quisite of a true lacing. The mossy feather is 

 eternally appearing even when the greatest care 

 has been taken in mating up, generally on the 

 back of the female, sometimes under the hackle, 

 and oftentimes on the wing itself When a 

 judge sees a collection of such feathers on a hen 

 or pullet, he wastes no time in searching for 

 good points, but passes on to the next exhibit ; 

 so let young fanciers keep such birds at home, 

 and save both entry fees and railway expenses. 



" 5. There is another faulty feather, called 

 ticked at the base. It may be apparently clear 

 and well defined at first glance, but if we 

 examine closely, we find that at the base, or 

 where the web begins to be separated from the 

 fluff, the white is disfigured by streaks of black 

 to a certain extent (Fig. 105), but generally not 

 more than what we might call a splash. Being 

 confined to the unseen part of the feather, this is 

 not a great fault, and should only be taken into 

 account when separating two good birds for 

 prizes. 



" 6. Sometimes the definition of the black 

 edging is faulty. Instead of a clean inside edg- 

 ing we see a zig-zag line of black as in Fig. 106, 

 or streaked as in Fig. 107. This failing is mostly 

 noticeable on the breasts of cocks, especially on 

 the lower parts. 



" All that has been said of the faults of the 

 laced feather on hens, is equally applicable to 

 the laced feathers on cocks. But there is another 

 point to breed for in the male bird, and that is, 

 top-colour. All who have seen a laced Wyan- 

 dotte cock will have observed that the top-colour 

 is totally different from that of the hen, both as 

 regards shape of feather and style of lacing. 

 The cock with a perfect top has his neck and 

 saddle hackle of a silvery white colour, and 

 down the centre of each feather there should be 

 a narrow, sharply defined black stripe (Fig. 108). 

 Faulty tops may be threefold. 



" I. The sooty top, in which the black stripe 

 is generally to be seen, but the silvery edge of 

 the web is replaced by a greyish black, which 

 is termed sooty. The general effect of this loss 



of pure silver colour is well described by the 

 term applied, or by the word ' rusty ' or 

 ' smoky.' 



"2. The brassy top. — Birds with this draw- 

 back have their neck and saddle hackle spoilt 

 by a tanned appearance, as though they had 

 been running out for some time in the sun. 

 It is not caused by the sun generally, but bred 

 in them. The same fault is peculiar to all 

 cocks with a light or white top-colour, such as 

 white Leghorns, silver-grey Dorkings, etc. 



" 3. The plain top.-:— That is, a pure silver 

 top-colour without any stripe along the centre 

 of the feather. 



" A cock's breast should be evenly laced 

 from the throat to the base of the breast, and 

 also on the thighs, and even into the fluff. Some 

 cocks are what is called ' blind ' at the throat, 

 that is, the feathers are almost entirely black, or 

 perhaps with a faint centre of white ; lower down 

 towards the middle of the breast the feathers 

 open out in better style, and finish off too open ; 

 in other words the lacing ' runs out' This is a 

 bad and faulty breast, and to breed for cockerels 

 from such a male bird is very unadvisable. 

 Everybody knows that white in tail or white 

 in ear-lobe cannot be admitted. The wing-bar 

 feathers should be laced distinctly all round, 

 and as evenly as possible, just as the other 

 laced feathers on the Wyandotte are. They too 

 can have the faults of being mossy, splashed, 

 and horse-shoed. 



" How to mate up to breed exhibition or 

 standard birds is a question not yet solved in its 

 entirety ; but certain fixed principles guide all 

 the better breeders in their choice of 

 Breeding mates. The object of the fancier is 



Laced to get chickens that will score the 



Wyandottes. highest possible number of points in 

 the show-pen. Experience has 

 taught that whilst it is possible to obtain 

 good cockerels and good pullets from the same 

 pen, it is far easier and much surer to breed 

 from two pens, one mated up to produce 

 standard males, the other to produce standard 

 females. This is the principle of the double- 

 mating system. Much has been written 

 against the double system, but nothing from the 

 pen of any well-known successful Wyandotte 

 breeder. In my own yards I once had a strain 

 (Wood's) that bred both good pullets and well- 

 laced cockerels from the same pen, but the cocks 

 were inclined to be brassy-topped, although the 

 pullets that were produced from the same mating 

 never showed the least sign of soot or brassiness 

 in their hackles. These brassy and sooty-topped 

 cockerels I mated again to the whitest pullets, 

 and similar results followed : namely, clear, well 



