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Mother With Young Pheasants 
CHAPTER V 
The Ideal Mother for Pheasants 
ERHAPS no better hen can be found 
for rearing pheasants than the 
Cochin bantam. However, Japanese 
silkies are very much in favor for 
this purpose among pheasant breed- 
ers in England. Silkies are in a 
class by themselves, possessing pecu- 
liarities found in no other variety of 
chickens, such as black skin, purple 
combs and webless feathers of a silky texture, rendering them unable 
to fly. They are pure white in plumage, most excellent layers and 
easily confined. While the pure silky makes a good mother for 
young pheasants, when crossed with Cochin bantam, the result is 
very unsatisfactory. Such crosses are wild and nervous, of indis- 
criminate color, and showing tendencies of reverting back to their 
evident ancestor, the jungle fowl. 
For the purpose of perfecting an ideal hen for hatching pheas- 
ants, buff and white Cochin bantams were first crossed, producing 
a slightly larger chicken, about evenly divided in color between buff, 
white and black, with striped hackles. The largest of these females 
were selected and mated with a short, chunky Rhode Island red 
male, producing a hen considerably larger than the Cochin bantam, 
one that could cover more eggs but retain the excellent broody 
qualities of the bantam. By further selection, the objectionable 
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