BLUE MADRAS GAME. 



343 



bold character of the lacing which at present 

 distinguishes and makes so beautiful the Indian 

 Game. 



It is better, so far as possible, to breed 

 from birds over one year old, though this 

 cannot always be done. The chickens are 

 slow in feathering, though clothed sooner than 

 Malays ; and the progeny of adults fledge 

 more quickly and kindly than those of young 

 birds. The chickens are hardy to mere 

 exposure, provided they are brought up so, 

 but they must be kept running about, and 

 there are none which suffer more surely from 

 the falsely called " cramp " described on p. 85, 

 if subjected to too much heat or to over- 

 feeding. A prevailing diet of grain or hard 

 food seems to suit them best, including 

 especially a portion of canary seed if brought 

 up in partial confinement : on free range, as 

 indicated by Mr. Brent, they give hardly any 

 trouble or anxiety at all. 



There is really only one recognised breed of 

 Indian Game, as described above. Whites have 

 been shown as such, and appear recognised in 

 America, but are mere mongrels, and were 

 protested against by the Indian Game Club 

 in 1900. A soft bird, with neither colour, nor 

 marking, nor lustre, has no right to the name, 

 and is not likely to preserve even the useful 

 qualities for which the breed is valued, and 

 which depend largely upon unbroken pedigree. 

 Such birds would be disqualified by any com- 

 petent judge recognised by the Club. 



In a somewhat difierent category must be 

 placed an undoubtedly pure breed of which 

 very little is known now, but of which specimens 



were occasionally shown years ago 

 ^'"® under the name of Blue Madras 



Game. Game. We have felt in some doubt 



whether they could most properly 

 be mentioned under the heading of Aseel, or 

 in this place. Their undoubted gameness would 

 rank them with the Aseel, as would also their 

 shorter legs and low carriage. But their large 

 size, their much better laying than anything 

 known of Aseel, the fact that they never sported 

 white, while they sometimes did sport nearly 

 black in the cockerels, and especially the lacing 

 which distinguished them, seem to place them 

 most properly here. At all events, while clearly 

 not Aseel, they were undoubtedly a pure local 

 variety of real " Indian Game," if not directly 

 allied to the Cornish bird of that name, and 

 had many qualities in common. For the follow- 

 ing details we are indebted to Mr. R. Gordon, 

 of Cheviot Cottage, Leven, N.B., and shall be 

 pleased if they awaken some renewed interest 



in a variety which otherwise must soon become 

 e.xtinct. 



" I fancy there are now very few specimens 

 of this breed in this country, and doubt if more 

 than one or two importations ever were made. 

 Mr. R. R. Fowler imported some birds from 

 India many years ago, and he stated that they 

 were brought from the interior for over three 

 hundred miles on camel-back. For myself, I 

 kept the breed for three seasons, having obtained 

 some stock from his original strain. Although 

 very fond of them, I finally cleared them out, 

 simply because I had not the space to do equal 

 justice to them with other breeds I then had. 



" Still, the breed was a good one. The birds 

 were large, adult cocks weighing from Si lbs. to 

 9 lbs., and hens about 7 lbs. In colour they were 

 something like the Andalusian, but with less 

 grey slate, and more clear blue in their plumage, 

 than the latter. They were also laced some- 

 thing after the Andalusian pattern, sharp and 

 narrow round the margin of the feathers, and 

 the colour of the lacing was dark blue. The 

 hen was one uniform shade all over, hackle 

 excepted, the latter being dark blue. Tails 

 were solid colour, not laced. With regard to 

 the cocks, breast and wing-bars were similar 

 in colour and lacing to that of the hen's body, 

 and the tail was also solid blue in colour like 

 that of the hen. Neck hackles, back, shoulders, 

 wing-bow, and saddle very dark blue, many 

 specimens throwing a lot of red in neck and 

 saddle. We never found any red feathers in 

 the hen. Legs were dark slate ; ear-lobes red 

 The comb was a very neat, low-set pea-comb. 



" This breed did not throw all blue chickens. 

 Perhaps twenty per cent, or thereabouts of the 

 cockerels came pure black, and these generally 

 grew into the finest of the flock so far as size 

 was concerned. No whites ever appeared, and 

 none of the pullets ever came other than blue. 

 The shape of the birds was also very pleasing. 

 They partook of something of the character of 

 the Indian Game, but had hardly anything of 

 the angularity of the latter. That is to say, 

 they were fairly short and close in feather, broad 

 built and cobby, short in leg (much shorter than 

 Indian Game), stout in bone, nicely curved neck. 

 which was also fairly short, and in harmony 

 with length of leg, and wings carried well up, 

 the butts showing clearly. 



" I found that the best way to mate this 

 breed was a rather dark cock with good lacing 

 to clear blue hens, also showing good lacing. 

 Many of the latter were of a beautiful dove 

 colour, and well adapted for the breeding-pen. 



" As to utility qualities, the hens proved fairly 

 good layers of large-sized eggs, cream or bufi- 



