BREEDING PILE GAME. 



371 



the wings as possible, although a little warm 

 colour, so as to give the bird a rosy appearance, 

 if not too much so, is no great fault : still, the 

 clearer the wing the better, provided the breast 

 is a good rich salmon colour, and not a pale 

 yellow, as is sometimes found. It is quite an 

 easy matter to breed clear-winged pullets with 

 pale breasts, but these should not find favour in 

 the show-pen ; better far allow a trifle for a little 

 colour on the wing and have a rich-coloured 

 breast, than give way to pale-breasted pullets 

 because of their clear wings. 



" Piles may be bred true to colour for a year 

 or two, by breeding from Piles of both sexes. 

 For breeding cocks it is particularly desirable 

 that the hens should be well rosed 

 Breeding on the wings, and with good deep 



Piles. breast colour, and be as tall and as 



prominent in shoulder as possible. 

 Never breed from light-eyed birds, or from any 

 having a twisted breast-bone. The cock for 

 cock-breeding should be a good exhibition speci- 

 men as already described, with plenty of reach, 

 and a tail fine in feather, short, carried just 

 above the level of the back, and the sickles short, 

 fine, and well tapered at the ends. He should 

 also be broad in chest, and sound in eye-colour. 

 If size, reach, and stamina are required, never 

 use a breeding bird under twelve months old. 



" For pullet-breeding, on the other hand, it is 

 necessary that the hens should be as free from 

 colour on the wing as possible, while good in 

 breast ; and the cock to mate with them should 

 be a darker shade of top-colour — more inclined 

 to a brickish red all through. If he is a bit 

 marbled on the breast it may be all the better, 

 providing his wing-ends and wing-butts are a 

 clear white, and his wing-bays sound. 



" To breed true to colour it is necessary to 

 in-bre€d,and continue to do so until the produce 

 shows either signs of weakness, softness, or want 

 of size, or until the leg-colour and top-colour 

 become too pale. It is then advisable to intro- 

 duce a cross of Black-red blood, by mating a 

 Black-red cock to Pile hens. By doing this, 

 rich-coloured cocks will be obtained, and also 

 some good useful cock-breeding pullets for next 

 season's mating. This is for cock-breeding ; 

 but the pullet-breeding pen must be kept as 

 pure as possible, by retaining each year the 

 most likely breeders for future use, the Black- 

 red blood only coming in indirectly through 

 the cockerels bred from it." 



In choosing a Black-breasted Red cock for 

 crossing with Piles, particular care should be 

 taken that he is a sound rich chestnut in his 

 wing-bays. The pullets that come from the 

 cross are generally willow-legged, but very 



sound on the breast ; and several times we have 

 had reported to us good results from putting 

 a few of the best of such birds with a good 

 pullet-breeding cock whose father was also a 

 Pile. A very fine pullet was also represented 

 to have been bred from a quite pale-breasted 

 pullet mated with a Black-breasted Red cock- 

 erel, but with yellow legs, which had been bred 

 from Piles. Any breeder will recognise the 

 possibilities from crosses of this kind, and the 

 principle which underlies them. 



Other colours are scarcely ever now seen 

 in exhibition Game, and may be dismissed 

 in a few words. We have in former years seen 



at Birmingham large and fine 

 Other classes of Black and Brassy-winged, 



Colours. the latter admitting the golden 



feathers which are such a difficulty 

 in the males of most black fowls : there were 

 also good classes of Whites. Up to the time 

 we write there is still a refuge there for 

 both colours combined, but there are few entries, 

 and still fewer exhibitors. In the classes for 

 " Any Other Colour," the entries were Silver 

 Duckwings, referred to above. Blue Duns, and 

 Mottles. The fact is that all these colours 

 belonged to a time when the fowl was nearer 

 the old type ; and have their proper place now 

 in the Old English Game classes. 



Though the long limbs of this breed look un- 

 sightly on the table, the flesh is still good, and 

 abundant on breast and wings. Many of the 

 present hens are also very good layers.. Hence 

 the exhibition Game is by no means an unprofit- 

 able fowl where there is room enough to keep it 

 to advantage, as the surplus can be eaten to 

 profit, while the hens and pullets will pay 

 their own way. The great length of limb, 

 as in all other cases, has however brought 

 with it considerable delicacy of constitution 

 in the shape of leg weakness. A great help 



against this is Parrish's Chemical 

 Rearing Food, and care should also be taken 



Game. not to attempt to push the chickens 



on too fast, or to great size, as it 

 were, but to let them grow up on plain food, 

 with plenty of exercise, in a hardy manner. 

 Whatever may be the case with other breeds, 

 exhibition Game chickens, at least, get on 

 distinctly better when hatched and reared under 

 hens ; the individuality and activity suit them 

 better, especially when the hens can be allowed 

 a large amount of liberty. , For the following 

 remarks upon rearing and exhibiting we are 

 further indebted to Mr. Samuel Matthew : — 

 " The best way to rear and manage Game 



