MOULTING AND COLOR SRE^EDING ll9 



It will be noted that it takes an impure male mated with a 

 yellow female to produce yellow males and that an impure male 

 can be produced from the mating of pure red males to yellow 

 females or by mating yellow males to red females, but when 

 once a yellow male is produced and mated to a yellow female, 

 the offspring will all be yellow. The offspring as shown in the 

 tables will not always prove in the same ratio of one to 

 four, but they will average that proportion. 



What is true of Red and Yellow combinations is also true with 

 Black and Dun and Blue and Silver combinations. 



INBREEDING 



The chance of inbreeding and tlie danger of harm from it is not 

 as great as most people think. To repeatedly mate brother with 

 sister, mother with son or father with daughter would bring 

 bad results, but an occasional mating of this kind, as might 

 occur by chance, will make little or no difference and show 

 no ill effect. 



The percentage of chance of close inbreeding is so small that 

 it does not pay to guard against it. As an example, with as 

 few as six pairs to start a flock with, there would be but one 

 chance in five for a brother to mate with sister out of the first 

 lot of youngsters and considerably less than that as the flock 

 increased. 



The chance for a parent bird to mate with its daughter or son, 

 would be less, as the size of the flock would be much larger by 

 the time an old bird would probably die and make it necessary 

 for an old bird to get a new mate. 



