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THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



to turn out winners, than he could do of those 

 breeds which require double pens. One thing 

 he must take very great care about, as it is 

 especially a law of breeding when only one pen 

 is used. Never fix a fault. Never, under any 

 circumstances, use stock birds that are both of 

 them white in ears, or that have their feathers 

 tipped with white. If the birds show a tendency 

 to light ears, use every means possible to stamp 

 out this grave defect, by using a cock thoroughly 

 sound in his lobes, and which has been bred 

 from sound-lobed birds. The following year 

 use only the best of his produce, mating the 

 sound-coloured pullets back to the sire. Examine 

 also the quality of the barring. See that it is 

 sound, and goes right across the feather. Reject 

 any bird with a tendency to spangling, or that 

 is too light or too dark in colour, though if your 

 mate be too light or too dark, you may with 

 profit put to him hens erring in the opposite 

 direction. And have no white in tail or flights 

 in the breeding-pen. 



Keep to one strain only. Procure the best 

 birds at the outset that the purse w'ill allow from 

 some successful breeder. Get the right thing to 

 begin with, and keep to it wholly and solely 

 so long as you can rear the chickens, keeping 

 a strict account of the pedigree of each bird. 

 How this can be done without losing stamina 

 has been shown in an early chapter of this work. 

 In the attempt to improve them, there should 

 on no account be any raw importation of the 

 blood of another variety. If the pedigree of 

 each is strictly kept the breeder has a plain 

 course before him ; knowing exactly how such 

 and such a bird is bred, notwithstanding some 

 glaring fault it may have, he is still able to use 

 it, often with more advantage than if it were 

 an exhibition bird ; but when no record is kept 

 he is completely at sea. By keeping a pedigree 

 list many a bird becomes worth pounds, when, 

 without it, it would hardly be worth as many 

 shillings. 



Breeding should be done on the principle of 

 in-mating. Breed late also ; by so doing you 

 will reduce size. Strive after the style and 

 shape of the Sebright or Rosecomb, and go 

 dead against long leg, white or black feathers, 

 splashed lobes, long narrow backs, squirrel tails, 

 spangled feathers, and all colours of legs other 

 than white or mottled. Aim for the medium 

 shade in colour. Get the barring glossy black, 

 and as sharp as possible ; the feather broad and 

 flowing, comb evenly serrated and a nice medium 

 size. Then the judges will not forget you, and you 

 will have produced something which they can 

 honestly and honourably reward as a triumph 

 of science ; but — no art, please ! 



Nankin Bantams are another ancient and 

 really distinctive breed, but seem to have fallen 

 on evil days, and become "beautifully less" 

 almost to the point of extinction. 

 Nankin I had them some thirty years ago. 



Bantams. and had I kept them to the present 

 could have exhibited them, I think, 

 as Buff Orpington Bantams: they were a great 

 deal nearer the mark than the present-day 

 apology for a Buff Orpington Bantam. I never 

 saw such a mixed lot of Bantams collected 

 under one common name before as the so-called 

 Buff Orpington Bantams at Carlisle in 1899. 

 Barring the name, there was nothing buff about 

 them at all. The old Nankin, in point of colour, 

 would have had quite a walk over. During the 

 past year, however, at close upon three score 

 and ten shows, I do not remember seeing more 

 than a couple of pens of genuine Nankins. 



These birds are single-combed, cherry-faced, 

 blue-legged, red-eyed. In colour the cock is 

 a deep cinnamon or reddish buff, often with 

 black in his tail ; but, as in all buff breeds, the 

 less of this, or of white, either in the tail or flights, 

 the better. The pullet is a lighter shade of buff 

 all through. She should be very even in her 

 colouring, with no patchiness as if she had got 

 about half-way through her moult, and the old 

 feathers were contrasting with the new. Neither 

 must the bird show any mealiness, or lacing of the 

 feathers with a lighter shade of buff or white 

 This is often seen in buff birds of any variety ; 

 it appears on the wing-bow and bar as well 

 but if any set themselves to persevere with the 

 Nankin, they should look out for these defects 

 as they arise, and eradicate them at once, so 

 far as they can. They can learn a lot by 

 examining buff" birds generally at shows, and 

 fixing in their minds wherein the superlative 

 excellences of the best specimens lie, and trying 

 to import the same elements into their Nankin 

 proteges. Perhaps we may never reach this 

 ideal, for even at the Crystal Palace shows 

 classes are not provided for Nankins, nor have 

 they any place in the Standard. But who can 

 tell.'' Look at the Old English Game Bantam a 

 very few years ago ; and it may be that, owing 

 to some breeder or other of good position and 

 powers of pushing, the old Nankin may yet 

 jump into fame. Buff has always been a 

 popular colour with the fancy, and so to any 

 breeder of the Nankin we would say. Nil 

 dcsperandum. Meanwhile breed from one pen 

 only, and mostly for colour. When that point 

 is once got, as it ought to be, sound, rich, good 

 buff" to the skin, free from black or white in 

 tail and flights, and no mealiness about it, then, 

 even if the Nankin fails to " take on " of itself, 



