SEBRIGHT BANTAMS. 



52' 



Sebrights require some management to secure 

 fertility in the eggs. The evil of infertility is 

 one which cannot be remedied quite so easily 

 in their case as in Pekins and Booted, since it is 

 the natural result of breeding from hen-feathered 

 cocks. Still much can be done by absolute rest 

 from exhibition during the breeding season, and 

 by choosing those male birds which actually do 

 chance to come sickled, or have at least an inch 

 or two of sickles projecting beyond the tail 

 proper. There is nearly always an abundance 

 of eggs from a well kept and housed pen of 

 Sebrights, so this helps the breeder. But the 

 little chicks are delicate, especially during the 

 first few weeks of their lives, and require quite 

 professional care to rear them. They should 

 have dry, very dry sheltered runs, and be 

 absolutely cut off from cold east winds and 

 beating rain, with access to as much green food 

 as possible. Some breeders from long experi- 

 ence are very successful. Their percentage of 

 clear eggs is small, their run of luck with chicks 

 good, and their fortune in the show-pen excellent. 

 But such breeders are observant. They do not 

 overtax their breeding-pen in any way, they 

 shelter it and look well after it, and the young 

 broods have their individual attention. Others, 

 on the contrary, make very little out of a pen. 

 They cannot be convinced till it is too late, that 

 care and thought are necessary. They have 

 perhaps reared Brahmas, Cochins, Orpingtons, 

 and the like ; they " know all about it," they 

 say, and failure after failure does not make 

 them much wiser. 



In describing what a typical Sebright should 

 be, I will take Silvers first. I like to see in the 

 cocks a short square back, perfectly flat, breast 

 full and prominent, wings carried somewhat low, 

 and tail somewhat up, giving to the little fellow 

 a very proud, strutting, jaunty air. The comb 

 should be helmet-shaped, fairly broad in front, 

 full of work, and with fine leader curved to- 

 wards the neck. The face should be inclined 

 to mulberry. The cockerels can never be got as 

 deep a colour in face as the pullets ; still, the 

 deeper the better. They should always have 

 a certain amount of dusky crimson about the 

 eye. The ear-lobes should be free from white, 

 but a little purple or blue is an advantage. 

 The eyes are very dark, beak horn colour, short 

 and stout, wattles fair size and nicely rounded, 

 not folded or creased. They should be clean 

 legged, of a slaty-blue colour. The tail should 

 be fairly large, and well spread, quite hen- 

 feathered, with no sickles or side-hangers as in 

 other rosecombs. Occasionally a sickled bird 

 will come, and such if good in all other points 

 will make a capital breeder, as a much larger 



percentage of chicks will be produced from such 

 a bird, than from the somewhat unprolific hen- 

 tails. Head and tail should nearly meet in a 

 bird of excellent carriage. The plumage should 

 be a clear silvery white in the ground, with 

 a clear, sharp, beetle-green black, but fine lacing. 

 Some lacing fails by reason of it being a sort of 

 brownish-black, or in some strains grey-edged 

 round the black. In others the lacing may fail 

 by reason of its disappearance at the extreme 

 end of the feather, whilst some again is spoilt 

 by reason of the increased width of the lacing 

 at the end of the feather, which is doubtless 

 a tendency after the Polish or spangled form 

 of marking. This defect is principally seen in 

 the larger feathers of the tail. See that the 

 secondaries of the wing are well laced right 

 down to the lowest feather. Often two or three 

 feathers here fail. The tail coverts should also 

 be well examined. They should be numerous, 

 and well and sharply laced. There should be no 

 spotting or smuts, or dusky appearance in the 

 root of the large tail feathers. Such feathers 

 are said to be cloudy or peppery, and are a 

 most serious blemish. This fault however can 

 be found in at least 50 per cent, of Silvers. It 

 will doubtless be bred out with time and 

 patience, and so the greatest care should be 

 taken that foul-feathered birds are not admitted 

 into the breeding pen. The Silver hen is 

 identical in ground-colour and lacing with the 

 cock, also in shape. She is however much 

 darker in face than her mate, and of course she 

 is smaller all through, and with a neater and 

 finer head. Long-backed pullets are a mistake. 

 See that your birds excel in short square backs, 

 as well as in colour, marking, and carriage. 



The only difference between the Golds and 

 Silvers lies in the ground-colour. The former 

 should be a bright rich deep golden-bay or 

 chestnut, not the pale golden we often find in 

 the present day exhibits ; which get unfor- 

 tunately lighter and lighter, till eventually they 

 will probably approach a pale buff. Such birds, 

 too, generally have that rusty-black lacing, than 

 which nothing can be more objectionable. 

 They are also liable to fail altogether in the 

 lacing of the flight or secondary wing-feathers, 

 and such are in these days of keen competition 

 worthless in the show-pen. 



In breeding Sebrights a little discretion is 

 necessary. It is invariably found that a heavily 

 laced bird bred to a lightly laced one, will pro- 

 duce a greater percentage, and a better quality 

 of lacing, than if two good quality medium-laced 

 were mated together. But yet another rule 

 obtains, that the heavily-laced bird should be of 

 the same sex as you wish to produce 



