524 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



Now we will proceed to Blacks. Most 

 readers will be familiar with the rich beetle 

 green of the Black Hamburgh plumage. I 

 cannot say that such has yet been obtained in 



all its lustre, but that is what we 

 Black want to aim at. This colour in 



Pekins. Blacks is a great desideratum, and 



when obtained, counts very heavily 

 in their favour. The fluff should also be black 

 right through down to the skin. Much oftener 

 we find it a grizzly grey, or. almost white, 

 arising no doubt from crossing of the Black 

 variety with Whites for the sake of stamina, and 

 obtaining length of feather ; but all the same 

 this defective fluff is a great blemish, and every 

 care should be taken to eradicate it. Breed as 

 long as you can from Blacks pure and simple, 

 only crossing with White under compulsion. 



Blacks can be bred from one pen, though 

 we prefer two, for the simple reason that the 

 rich beetle green of the pullets is best got 

 from a cock showing a tendency to ruddiness 

 or bronze, which would never do, of course, in 

 cock-breeding. The cock for that must be the 

 best coloured exhibition specimen obtainable, 

 rich and lustrous, but red feathers would be 

 fatal to him in the prize pen. But such red- 

 feathered cocks are just what you want for 

 pullet-breeding, i.e. birds with a tinge of red in 

 the saddle and back. Select in both breeding- 

 pens, birds as short in back as possible, low on 

 the leg, good in feather, and with as small and 

 neat combs as possible, and then you will not go 

 far wrong. See that the middle toe especially is 

 clothed with feather to the nail, and that there 

 is no admixture of white in foot-feather, tail, 

 or under wing feathers. Do not have hens 

 tinged with any foreign colour, in either cockerel 

 or pullet-breeding pens. They should be quite 

 pure, very sheeny, and as near exhibition 

 specimens as can be obtained. Discard grey or 

 white in fluff or lobe. 



White Pekins are a charming variety, only 

 they must be white quite free from any straw 

 tinge, and very rich in orange leg- colour. They 



are not quite so easy to keep as 

 White some of the other varieties for these 



Pekins. reasons. They must have a grass 



run, partly eovered and boarded up 

 at sides ; in fact as much protection from wind, 

 sun, and rain as can well be given them, 

 compatible with their health. They do well on 

 a dry sandy run by the seaside, and are all the 

 better so far as leg colouring goes, if kept out of 

 a limestone neighbourhood. They are extremely 

 beautiful in the show pen, and are abundantly 

 feathered in the best specimens. Of course they 

 have to go through the tub, like all white birds, 



before exhibition, but they soon get used to it, 

 and are unusually tame under the operation, 

 after they once understand it. Small woods or 

 orchards are capital places for them ; but never 

 try them in a backyard, or smoky place ; or 

 where there is much grit and coarse matter to 

 injure the foot-feather. They are very easy 

 to breed true to colour, if you get the right 

 blood for a start. Any tendency to a rich 

 creamy colour is against them. 



They may be crossed with Black occasionally 

 to keep up their strength. The produce will be 

 black or white. The Blacks will show the cross 

 by grey under-colour, and possibly in chicken- 

 hood a few white feathers in theit feet, but these 

 generally disappear before they are fit to show. 

 It is not advisable to breed from the Blacks, even 

 should they be perfectly sound in colour. The 

 Whites from the cross are usually very pure, 

 and altogether the cross is beneficial to them, 

 only that perhaps a little shorter feather is 

 produced thereby, and they may not be quite so 

 rich in leg colour, as if bred from Whites on 

 both sides. Crossing the two varieties seems to 

 multiply the quantity of feather upon them, 

 though as before, it may shorten it a bit in the 

 Whites. 



Cuckoo Pekins are not so often met now 

 (igi i) as they were years ago, and do not seem 

 likely ever to become so popular as Blacks 

 or Whites. Seeing that the colour 

 Cuckoo is identical with that of the popular 



Pekins. Plymouth Rock, or Scotch Grey 



Bantam, this is rather to be wondered 

 at. We seldom or never see a really first-rate 

 specimen at a provincial show. One drawback 

 to the breed is the difficulty of getting the birds 

 true to colour. Like the two varieties just 

 named, there is much variation in the several 

 strains extant, in ground-colour, but the colour 

 should be very uniform all over the bird : a soft 

 pale shade of blue, with sharp clear definite 

 barring upon each feather, black or as near black 

 as possible, and the barring extending down the 

 feather right through the fluff to the skin. This 

 is an extremely important point. Many a bird 

 looks all right, and in the hands of some judges 

 will win, from mere outside colour, when there 

 is no fluff barring at all ; but such birds ought 

 to be rejected both by breeder and exhibitor, as 

 they are not what is required in a first-class 

 stock or exhibition bird. Again, never select a 

 bird with any great amount of white in the tail 

 or flights when opened out. It only leads to 

 disappointment. 



In mating up the breeding-pens it would be 

 well to use two separate pens where space 

 allows, for cockerel- and pullet-breeding. For 



