JUDGING OLD ENGLISH GAME. 



359 



and handle him, and if firm in flesh and 

 feather, clever in hand, with strong neck, and 

 root to his tail, long and strong wings with 

 sound unbroken quill feathers, and straight in 

 legs, breast, and back, and of good carriage and 

 muscular, he will be fit to go into the prize list. 

 Shape is the great point, for a badly shaped bird 

 should stand no chance, and this cannot be told 

 except by handling the bird, so that no judge 

 will have done his duty until he has taken all 

 the likely birds in his hands. Even then a 

 person of experience is required to discriminate, 

 for we often see birds with alien blood winning 

 prizes at shows under incompetent judges. 

 Feathery, fluffy Dorking types, and crosses with 

 the modern Game, cannot be too carefully 

 shunned by the judges. The great fear is that 

 this grand breed may be again spoiled by 

 exhibitors in a few years, by breeding to purely 

 fancy points, until it becomes another edition of 

 modern Game, though bred on different lines. 

 Let us remember that while the exhibitors were 

 evolving from the same breed the modern Game, 

 the old cockers, by judicious in-breeding, 

 retained not only the Old English Game, but 

 all its fine table qualities, its laying properties, 

 and hardihood. They bred for purity of blood, 

 shape, activity, hardihood, strength, and game- 

 ness, and it will be a standing disgrace if 

 exhibitors allow themselves to lose all these 

 useful points in breeding for the exhibition pen, 

 and in seeking to improve upon a breed that 

 was in its perfection nearly a century ago, and 

 bred to a standard we can scarcely hope to 

 attain to nowadays." 



We fear that whenever cock-fighting shall 

 entirely die out, it will be impossible to avoid 

 some change in the type of the Old English 

 Game fowl, which was only produced by severe 

 competitive selection. As the fowl is bred for 

 table use, for instance, size must tend somewhat 

 to increase ; and in the absence of test by com- 

 bat, power of wing must tend to decrease. 

 In 1872 we remember publishing the fact 

 that a cock of Coath's strain, about 4J lbs., flciv 

 from Lower Langdon to Higher Langdon 

 Farm (half a mile) and there killed the master 

 bird of that farm ; and the late Mr. John Harris 

 of Liskeard told us that years ago, when the 

 late Col. Trevor Dickens* came to see him, he 

 called over a hundred cockerels then running 

 under an old cock, from across the valley, and 

 they came flying over the trees like a flock of 

 rooks. We do not think many of the modern 

 birds weighing 5 lbs. to 6 lbs. would have either 



* In the 'sixties this gentleman wrote largely upon this fowl 

 under the nom- de-plume of " Newmarket." 



length or power of wing for such feats as these. 

 Such changes are inevitable, but care may at 

 least be taken to guard against departure from 

 main proportion, and to exhibit birds with firm 

 flesh and good feather and symmetry, and not 

 too fat, as we have been sorry to see on several 

 occasions. 



It is also to be desired that there should be 

 no attempt to introduce into the judging of the 

 principal colours those artificial niceties of 

 colour and marking, which long ago necessitated 

 the "double-mating" system in the exhibition 

 varieties. All the colours in the Old English 

 Game fowl were true self-contained varieties, 

 recognised in the natural colour relation of the 

 two sexes, and breeding both alike true to 

 feather. Once this principle is departed from, 

 the seeds of future mischief are sown ; for 

 artificial shades of colour are given a promi- 

 nence that cannot be given without ruin to the 

 breed itself. Next to the care for true type, 

 nothing is more vital to the preservation of 

 this noble race of fowls than the maintenance 

 of such natural sex-relations in colour as is 

 implied by single-mating. 



The Standard of Perfection for Old English 

 Game, framed upon that adopted by the Club, 

 and merely reduced by the Poultry Club to its 

 own form of expression, is in one or two points 

 perhaps open to exception ; for instance, it surely 

 cannot be right to allow red eyes in Black 

 Game. It is as follows : — • 



STANDARD FOR OLD ENGLISH GAME 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 



COCK 



Head. — Skull : Medium length, and tapering. 

 Beak : Slightly curved and strong at base. Eyes 1 

 Large, bright, and prominent, full of expression, 

 and alike in colour. Comb : Single, small, upright, 

 of fine texture, and evenly serrated at its edge. Face : 

 Of fine texture. Ear-lobes and Wattles : Fine and 

 small to match the comb as nearly as possible. 

 (Note. — It is customary to exhibit Game cocks 

 after being dubbed — i.e. having their comb, ear- 

 lobes, and wattles removed, and lea\'ing the head 

 and lower jaw smooth and free from ridges.) 



Neck. — Long, and very strong at the junction 

 with the body, furnished with long and wiry feathers 

 covering the shoulders. 



Body. — Breast : Broad and weU developed. Back : 

 Short and fiat, tapering to the tail. Shoulders : 

 Broad. Wings : Long, full, and round, incUning to 

 meet under the tail, amply protecting the tliighs, 

 and furnished with hard quills. 



Tail. — Sickle feathers abundant, broad, curved 

 main feathers with hard and strong quills, and 

 carried well up, but not of the " squirrel" type. 



Legs and Feet. — Legs : Thighs short, thick, and 

 muscular, well set and held wide apart ; shanks of 

 medium length, finely and evenly scaled, and round. 



