BREEDING BLACK-BREASTED RED GAME. 



365 



all lopped even when she is laying. The 

 hackles are nearly a lemon, pencilled in the 

 centre. Her breast should be a light salmon, 

 lighter towards the stern and down the thighs ; 

 the back somewhat of a stone-colour, the minute 

 black partridge marking being on a grey 

 ground with scarcely any brown in it ; wing- 

 coverts and secondaries of a light brown colour 

 and evenly pencilled ; shanks and feet willow. 

 Her tail should be carried low, and be somewhat 

 short and well whipped together, in order to 

 breed these points in the cockerels. It is 

 almost unnecessary to say that such a hen 

 should be of the same blood as exhibition 

 cockerels, reliance not being placed upon colour 

 alone if it can possibly be helped. 



" We come next to the exhibition pullet. In 

 shape and general points she will resemble that 

 just described. Her head and neck hackle are 

 golden, as free from black as possible : the 

 breast salmon, running off to more ashy colour 

 on the thighs ; body a light partridge, not 

 coarsely pencilled on the wings nor at all mossy 

 in flights : the back and sides even in colour 

 throughout. 



" Such birds being chosen as the mothers, 

 I will now describe the colour of the cock 

 required in order to breed pullets fit for the 

 show-pen ; in build and style he will, of course, 

 resemble the exhibition bird already described. 

 But his top-colour, that is especially his hackle 

 and saddle, is quite different, being quite a bright 

 lemon, so as to appear almost washy. Cockerels 

 of this colour, of course bred from pullet- 

 breeding strains, are now used by most of our 

 principal breeders to produce the pullets that 

 win at the leading shows ; but they are not 

 themselves good enough to win in high com- 

 petition. The pullets themselves also very 

 seldom produce a good cock, though you may 

 get one now and then by chance. Thus it will 

 be seen that for breeding Black-breasted Red 

 Game successfully, two pens, or what is called 

 double-mating, must now be used. 



" Some breeders also employ for pullet- 

 breeding cocks that are marked with brown on 

 breast, wing-butts, and rump. By putting such 

 a bird to good pullets or hens, they often obtain 

 very good-coloured pullets for the show-pen ; 

 but not only are the cockerels useless for 

 showing, but hens or pullets bred in this way 

 prove most disappointing if it is attempted to 

 breed cockerels from them, as many amateurs 

 have proved to their cost. This mating also 

 produces more wasters than that first described. 



" I do not believe in now crossing either of 

 the above colours in cocks with Wheaten hens, 

 having tried this mating with no good results. 



But the first described, or exhibition cock, is 

 well adapted for breeding exhibition Pile cocks, 

 when crossed with a good yellow-legged, pale- 

 coloured Pile hen : the pullets will be useless, as 

 they will be willow-legged. And the second 

 colour described, the pullet-breeding cock, is 

 well adapted to cross for Duckwings ; if put to 

 a clear-winged good Duckwing hen, the produce 

 will generally be a well-marked Duckwing cock." 



The matings here described, it will be 

 seen, represent established cockerel-breeding 

 and pullet-breeding strains. Other matings, as 

 described years ago by the late Mr. John 

 Douglas and Mr. W. F. Entwisle, are still 

 occasionally used by breeders with more or 

 less success. They depended on the use of 

 somewhat darker cocks, almost bay in the 

 hackle, with often a little black stripe in it, 

 and lighter shades of partridge hens, the lighter 

 of which in part resemble the cockerel-breeding 

 hen or pullet described above. At that time, 

 however, the exhibition colour of hens was a 

 perceptibly darker partridge than it is now. 

 Hence it was often found that a bright ex- 

 hibition cockerel mated with exhibition hens 

 produced good pullets of the rather darker 

 colour then shown, and such birds are still 

 successful occasionally by reason of excellence 

 in feather and style. The e.xhibition cockerel 

 was also mated with the lighter shades of 

 pullets to breed cockerels ; but the pullets 

 were rarely dark enough, and hence this 

 mating was already on the way to that 

 described by Mr. Matthew. The darker cocks 

 just mentioned were mated with medium or 

 rather light-coloured hens, often producing rich 

 partridge pullets ; and sometimes with a very 

 light hen, or a Wheaten, they would breed 

 bright rich cockerels. But the final preference 

 for bright colour in both sexes, has made these 

 old matings difficult and uncertain, though some 

 fine individual bird may occasionally make such 

 an experiment well worth while. 



It is almost unnecessary to state that in 

 any of the matings here described, as in all 

 other poultry breeding for points of plumage, 

 an all-important matter is the pedigree of 

 the birds. Two pullets of apparently similar 

 plumage, but of different breeding, might pro- 

 duce very different progeny from the same 

 cockerel. To mate carefully by choice of 

 colours alone, is better than to mate carelessly, 

 and from necessity it may have to be done 

 sometimes, for want of other information about 

 some bird that promises too well to be passed 

 over. But the breeder's sheet-anchor is pedigree, 

 and the knowledge that the bird he has chosen 

 is of the proper cockerel-breeding or pullet- 



