37° 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



"The second mating for pullet-breeding 

 specially, is that of a Silver Diickwing cock, with 

 Duckwiiig or pure Black-red hens. 



'• The Silver Duckwing cock should be silver 

 in' colour from head to root of tail ; his bars 

 purple ; a clear white diamond ; wing-ends, tail, 

 breast, shoulders and fluff all good sound black; 

 other points as the Golden Duckwing cock. 



" The Duckwing hens to mate with him 

 should be very sound in colour — that is, one 

 shade throughout — but a darker cast is no draw- 

 back, and the darkest-coloured hens, if sound- 

 coloured, should be mated up in this pen ; their 

 breasts should be a deep salmon. No coarseness 

 in colour at all should be allowed in these birds, 

 and the darker shade is preferable. 



" The same remarks hold good also for Black- 

 red hens to be mated with the Silver Duckwing 

 cock : the darker shades are preferable, with 

 deep salmon breast, always provided that there 

 is no coarseness or unsoundness in colour. These 

 latter hens will occasionally throw a good Golden 

 Duckwing cockerel, although the mating is 

 chiefly for pullets. 



" In regard to the produce of such mating, 

 from the Duckwing hens the cockerels, of course, 

 will be Silver, and may be exhibited in Variety 

 classes. The pullets, if good, are the best of 

 all Duckwing pullets for exhibition purposes. 

 The markings are finer, the hackles cleaner and 

 without cap, and there is less rust and shaft 

 than from any other mating. They are in addition 

 valuable for mating with a pure Black-red 

 cock. From the pure Black-red hens, cock- 

 erels will be both Golden and Silver, but mostly 

 Silver. If the Golden cockerels thrown should 

 be good, they will exhibit, and will afterwards 

 mate with pullets from pure-bred Duckwing 

 stock. The pullets will come both Duckwing 

 and Black-red. The Black-reds will not 

 exhibit, but the Duckwings will, and both will 

 afterwards breed with the Golden Duckwing 

 cock." 



The colour known as Wheaten is little seen 

 or used now in exhibition Game. The Red 

 Wheaten very much resembles the colour of 

 the skin of red wheat ; the Silver 

 Wheaten Wheaten a sort of silver cinnamon. 



Game. much resembling the paler sort of 



Sussex fowls described in earlier 

 chapters. Formerly Wheaten hens were a 

 great deal used to breed the brighter Black- 

 breasted Red cockerels ; Duckwing cocks were 

 also crossed with them to breed cockerels ; 

 and they were also used in breeding Piles. 

 But since the standard colours have been bred 

 more .systematically, these methods have been 



practically discarded, and the Wheaten hen is 

 generally found too light in blood to breed well 

 with the strains of the present day. Another 

 objection found was that much Wheaten blood 

 led to softness of feather ; and condition of 

 plumage has so much to do with success in 

 modern Game, that this also led to the 

 colour being disliked. It has now almost dis- 

 appeared. On one or two occasions even lately, 

 however, we have heard of very bright Duck- 

 wing cockerels having been bred from a 

 Wheaten hen. 



The Pile Game is a striking and beautiful 

 variety, which may be described in general 

 terms as a Black-breasted Red with the red and 

 coloured feathers left intact, but the 

 Pile black replaced by white all over 



Game. the bodies of both sexes. Thus 



the cock's wing-bar is white, while 

 the wing-bay is bay as usual, but with white 

 spots at the end of each secondary feather. 

 For the following notes upon Piles, and their 

 breeding for exhibition, we are indebted to Mr 

 Walter Firth, of Read, near Blackburn : — 



" This is certainly one of the most handsome 

 of all the varieties of Game, and when properly 

 mated, has the merit of breeding true to colour 

 and type. The greatest difficulty is to obtain 

 in the male bird the pure white breast, com- 

 bined with a rich dark chestnut wing-bay ; 

 and in the pullets a rich salmon breast with per- 

 fectly clear wing. 



" The Pile cock should be exactly similar to 

 the Black-breasted Red, with the exception that 

 where the Black-red cock is black, the Pile 

 should be a pure white. In harmony with this 

 the face, head, and throat should be a particularly 

 bright healthy red, the beak yellow, eye as rich 

 a ruby red as it is possible to obtain, and legs a 

 rich orange yellow, the deeper in. colour the 

 handsomer the bird. The hackleS are a clear 

 orange yellow, free from striping ; back and wing- 

 bows a rich orange-red inclined to crimson, the 

 saddle shading off to match the neck-hackle, or 

 clear orange yellow ; wing-bar and wing-butts a 

 pure white, breast and thighs ditto. The bird 

 must be tall, well up on the leg, with long fine 

 head and neck, and square prominent shoulders, 

 with shoulder-points well forward. The neck 

 hackle should fit closely and evenly, and not be 

 twisted as is very often the case. Other points 

 should, of course, be according to the general 

 features of exhibition Game, but any fault in 

 these is specially conspicuous in a Pile. 



" The Pile hen will match the cock in make, 

 head, face, eye, and legs. Her body colour is 

 creamy white, as pure from any red markings on 



