BLACK.RED GAME BANTAMS. 



511 



The shanks must be long, fine, and round in 

 bone, clear and smooth, and terminated in long 

 straight toes with good claws. The hind toe 

 should be planted firmly on the ground in a 

 straight line with the centre front toe, an}- 

 screwing about to right or left, or inwards, is 

 termed duck-footed, and is a certain disquali- 

 fication in the show-pen. Sometimes in very 

 reachy birds the back toe proves a trifle short, 

 but this is a minor fault compared with the 

 other. The tail is a special feature. It should 

 rise to a little above the horizontal, and the 

 twelve feathers of which the tail proper is com- 

 posed should be whipped together as closely as 

 possible. The whole feathering from head to 

 tail should be of the shortest, narrowest, and 

 scantiest ; and in the body and tail feathers as 

 strong in quill and as wiry to the touch as 

 possible. The sickles and hangers have been 

 bred to a surprising narrowness, and very short, 

 so that the former only protrude beyond the 

 tail proper about a couple of mches. The head 

 should be long, lean, and snaky, with a long, 

 strong, slightly curved beak, and a full, defiant, 

 eagle-like eye, placed just under the top of the 

 skull. Look for a long and fine neck, with 

 bright, narrow, short hackles, and very upright 

 or perpendicular carriage. 



Colour is a great desideratum, and should 

 come ne.xt. A rich colour, giving wide contrast, 

 greatly enhances the appearance of a bird. In 

 the males there should be no rustiness, espe- 

 cially about the shoulders, wing-bars, or hocks. 

 The standard colours of the different varieties 

 will be described as we proceed. 



Size, or want of it, is a very important 

 point, but diminutiveness may be overdone. 

 All other points being equal, the smallest bird 

 would undoubtedly win in the show-pen, and 

 for this reason small birds are much in request, 

 and command excellent prices. But very small 

 pullets are by no means desirable in the breed- 

 ing-pen. Three possibilities may arise. The 

 first is they may never lay at all ; the second is 

 that their first egg may prove their death ; and, 

 lastly, should they produce a few eggs, the 

 chicks resulting will in all probability turn out 

 such stunted little specimens as to be worthless. 

 Breed from small cocks and fair-sized hens or 

 pullets, feed judiciously, and you will secure 

 chicks small enough for keenest competition. 



The colour of Black-reds may thus be de- 

 scribed. The face, head, lobes, and wattles in 

 both sexes should be of a bright healthy red, 

 with legs, feet, and beak of a rich olive or 

 willow. Any tendency to slatiness shows 

 Duckwing blood. The neck -hackle of the cock 



should be a bright golden orange, free from 

 striping, and the saddle-hackle follows suit, 

 only as a rule in the best specmiens the saddle- 

 hackle runs a trifle lighter, clearer, 

 Black-red and richer golden hue than the 

 Bantams. neck. The back and wing-bow are 

 a bright solid crimson ; wing-butts 

 black ; wing-bars a glossy steel blue, free from 

 rusty ticking ; the secondaries of the wings a 

 clear bright chestnut, which should run through 

 to the end of the feather ; breast, thighs, and 

 tail a rich black, free from ticking, rustiness 

 about hocks, or chestnut shaftiness in sickles, 

 which generally denotes a pullet strain, and 

 will tell slightly against an exhibition 

 specimen. 



The Black-red pullet should have a pale 

 golden-coloured hackle, some shades lighter 

 than that of the cock, each feather being very 

 narrowly striped with black down either side 

 of the shaft. The main body colour is some- 

 what difficult to describe. It resembles the 

 medium brown drab shade of a partridge. If 

 each feather be examined carefully, it will be 

 found to be almost imperceptibly pencilled 

 through with the finest black, yet so exqui- 

 sitely fine as to produce one even soft shade 

 of colour all over back and wings. Imperfect 

 specimens often get this pencilling too much 

 in evidence. Such are termed " coarse." Even 

 in some of the best specimens there are two 

 or three feathers, usually the top flight feathers 

 of the wing, that show the undesirable blotch- 

 ing a little round the edge of the feather ; but 

 this is considered rather a serious fault in ex- 

 hibition pullets. The breast may be described 

 as a rich deep broken salmon, shading into 

 lighter colour towards throat and thighs. The 

 two top outer feathers of the tail correspond 

 exactly with the colour- of the body, otherwise 

 the tail is black. 



Now for the mating. See that the birds 



are sound in health : it is folly to hatch 



diseased chickens, because it is money and 



time thrown away. Do not crowd 



mack-rfd "P ^^"^ P^'^ "^'^ ^ '°* °^ pullets 

 „ ^ under the mistaken notion that you 



Bantams. . , , . ■'., 



are gomg to produce a majority 



of pullets ; or vice versa if you have but few 

 females to the male. This rule works far too 

 inconstantly to justify confidence in it, and 

 it is better to breed from three or four first- 

 rate pullets rather than from a host of in- 

 different ones. By all means, if the breeder 

 has funds and accommodation, let him mate 

 up two pens, one for cockerel- and the other 

 for pullet-breeding ; although exhibition speci- 

 mens of both sexes have been produced from 



