PREPARING THE FEATHERS FOR MARKET. 81 



hand the cocks' quill feathers ; these he will — feather by 

 feather — sort first into heaps consisting of prime whites, 

 first whites, second whites, tipped whites, best fancy- 

 coloured, and second fancy-coloured. He will then take 

 each one of these heaps separately, and sort each kind 

 into six or more lengths ; he will then proceed to tie 

 them up in bunches according to their lengths, about 

 twenty quills of the longest making a bunch, and rather 

 more of the shorter ones. The second whites can all 

 go into one bunch. The tipped whites are whites with 

 black tips. 



The hens' wings he will first sort into heaps according 

 to their shades of colour, with a second quality heap 

 for each shade, and then again sort each heap into 

 lenojths as with the whites. Amono^st the hens' feathers 

 he will get some wdiite ones, but these have not the 

 gloss of cocks' whites, and should be kept separate. 

 The hens' wings require more judgment and care in 

 sorting to make the best of them than any others. 



The hens' tails he will sort into six heaps, as fol- 

 lows, and then tie up. The heaps will be : — First, 

 whites ; second, light-coloured ; third, coloured ; fourth, 

 dark-coloured ; fifth, short ; sixth, broken feathers. The 

 cocks' tails into seven heaps, namely : — three lengths of 

 whites, one of broken feathers, and three lengths of what 

 are called mixed tails, that is, white tails with black butts. 

 G 



