SILKIES. 



493 



is hardly necessary to say that Silkies should 

 be exhibited as white as possible, and this is 

 not a difficult breed to produce pure-coloured 

 stock when the birds are properly mated. But 

 beware of the drip from trees. So many put 

 their birds in an enclosed run round an oak 

 or a beech, or so on. Whether winter or 

 summer, the rain brings something from the 

 leaves or bare boughs which discolours the 

 birds. I have noticed the same with Sultans 

 enclosed under forest trees ; so now, and oddly 

 enough, my dark-coloured birds have very 

 leafy roosts, and the white ones the sunshine, 

 with temporary shelter, when enclosed, of 

 sacks or shutters. 



" Some express difficulty in obtaining the 

 beautiful blue ear-lobe and the deep-coloured 

 mulberry comb in small birds. I have found 

 the same. Nevertheless, it can be done, as my 

 own experience knows. I grant that the coarser 

 birds come with charming head-points and 

 generally with excellent feet, while the feet 

 and beaks are both blue, but the birds are too 

 big. We have, therefore, to cross these birds 

 with the smallest hens that we can find, and 

 then, discarding all but the true in ear and 

 comb, cross again once more these with the 

 grand-parent or his brother. I have thus ob- 

 tained a regular strain of beautifully headed 

 birds. Some specimens have been winning 

 ■during the past season with either lead-coloured 

 ears or ears of no colour at all. I think that 

 the points of the head should be most certainly 

 taken into consideration as well as the silk. 



" The next question is that of green beaks 

 and legs. The former are not so aggressive if 

 they are only slightly tinged ; yet they should 

 be as blue as the beak of a cock Budgerigar. 

 I have known a greenish beak in time grow 

 blue ; in fact, quite frequently so. But I have 

 never known a green leg turn blue, not even a 

 greenish one. Green legs show decidedly some 

 mesalliance between strains. Green-legged 

 birds I always recommend to be killed in their 

 babyhood : it saves trouble, expense, and the 

 dawn of hope which never comes to fruition. 



" These attractive fowls are good layers of 

 small, cream-coloured [or white — Ed.] eggs all 

 the year round. The hens will lay with cack- 

 ling delight through the deepest snowstorm, 

 and seem as hard as bricks. They are very 

 bright and contented, and a trio or two on a 

 lawn, when they can have a small roosting- 

 house in a neighbouring shrubbery, are not 

 only most beautiful and attractive, but they 

 decidedly pay their way. The pullets lay 

 early, and continue to do so until they have 

 laid some number of eggs, but the hens will 



only lay from seven to ten eggs before desiring 

 to sit upon them. 



" It is unfortunate that so many Silkie 

 chickens turn out to be cockerels. I am told 

 the same story all round in regard to this. 

 And sometimes it is a difficulty to keep the 

 legs of this variety clean ; they so often suffer 

 from the insect disease known as elephantiasis. 

 This can easily be warded off by a rubbing 

 on the feet and legs of some compound sulphur 

 ointment once a fortnight." 



Mrs. Campbell, of Uley, Gloucestershire, 

 very kindly contributes the following notes on 

 the Silkie, and the improvements in the breed 

 during the ten years prior to 191 1 : — 



" There is no doubt that careful mating and 

 breeding, and the extended classification and 

 competition in shows of recent years, has much 

 improved type and quality of plumage in these 

 birds. It is now quite the usual thing to see 

 .Silkie cocks with ragged wings and tails with- 

 out hard feathers or sickles, whereas it used to 

 be the exception. The hens, too, have much 

 improved in wing — the hen I won the cup at 

 the Palace nine years ago would not have a 

 chance in the show pen to-day — and cocks also 

 used to be of a much coarser type, hard 

 feathers not only in wings and tail, but also 

 in the legs and feet. It is not my experience 

 that the hens or pullets lay so few eggs before 

 getting broody ; I generally have from twenty 

 to twenty-four eggs at least before they sit. 

 Also, my strain has always laid a white egg, 

 not tinted, as other breeders state. 



"As the Silkie is not a Bantam, I am 

 greatly averse to reduction in weight of these 

 birds ; if quality and size can be kept, the 

 better it will be. In my own strain I notice 

 that small specimens show also other signs of 

 degeneration, and if such be chosen to breed 

 from, this degeneration must increase. Many 

 are considerably lighter in weight than the 

 approximate weights suggested in the Silkie 

 Club Standard, though looking large when 

 they carry a great amount of silk. I have had 

 hens with the " silk " three inches long ; this, 

 standing out, increases the apparent size. 



" There is no doubt that the purity of colour 

 has greatly improved. A canary-coloured cock 

 won at the Dairy some few years ago ; 

 such would not have a chance now. As to 

 other colours, the blacks are the only ones 

 shown with any attempt at purity of colour 

 and silkiness. I have a very fair pen of blacks 

 now, but the difficulty is still with the male 

 birds' hackle. In France there is quite a 

 number of coloured varieties. ' Rosy-skinned ' 

 seem to be the most esteemed, but up to date 



