THE LEGHORNS 



nuiie 01 their popularity. A growing dislike of the lighter 

 color at the base of the neck was soon apparent to the 

 best breeders, and even surface color was sought by the 

 most progressive. "I do not like that light ring at the 

 base of the neck," was a phrase applied to many a bird of 

 unquestioned merit. In deference to this demand for an 

 even colored bird, the last standard was made to call for a 

 dark, rich red, having one shade of red in hackle, saddle, 

 back, shoulders and wing-bows, or in all red sections. 



Double Mating a Necessity 



With the demand for colored males, there still re- 

 mained the preference for the golden brown female. This 

 dissimilarity of popular types in male and female is re- 

 sponsible for our double matings. They came as an abso- 

 lute necessity when light females and dark males were 

 winning under our best judges. It should not be for- 

 gotten that the practice of double matings became uni- 

 versal when the breeders realized that light females and 

 dark males could not be produced from one mating. 



There soon came a change in the popular idea of what 

 a model female should be. Breeders realized after five or 

 six years' work with the golden brown penciling that the 

 Standard, by binding them to one precise and exact shade 

 of color, barred out some of the most taking and desir- 

 able females. Be what they might in shape, in color of 

 breast and neck and in penciling, they seldom would win 

 without that one feature of overwhelming merit — a 

 golden brown back. This one quality outweighed every- 

 thing else. Good penciling, rich yellow legs, a nicely 

 striped neck, a splendid head and grand shape were as 

 nothing when compared to a golden brown back. The 

 breeders gradually realized the absurdity of this position. 

 A change was demanded which should recognize fine pen- 

 ciling of two, and only two, shades of brown in back and 

 wing, thereby eliminating that lighter shafting and placing 

 on equal footing all shades of brown, so long as each was 

 a soft, rich brown. 



Changes in Scale of Points 



The scale of points has changed somewhat. Now a 

 good hackle and saddle will sell a bird, but then only five 

 points were allotted to each of these sections, while the 

 comb counted fifteen points and the wattles and lobe? 

 were regarded as equally important. The growing im- 

 portance of color can be seen by following the changes in 

 the scale of points. In the scales of 1875 and 1879, comb, 

 wattles and lobes counted fifteen points each, while the 

 head counted seven. This gave a total of thirty-seven 

 points, over one-third the total valuation of the bird, to 

 the head alone, while the important color sections, viz.: 

 Hackle, saddle and wings, were given only fifteen points, 

 both for shape and color. Symmetry, size and condition 

 -'Glinted thirty points more, thus leaving but thirty-three 

 : the shape and color of the entire specimen. The 

 ■jr.' of 1883 revised that considerably by cutting the 

 ■ •-..L.,. lobes and wattles down to ten points each while 

 ri.ndition and size were cut to eight and five points re- 

 spectively. Neck and back were raised to seven points 

 and wmgs very properly to eight points. This scale has 

 remained except that in 1888 shape and color valuations 

 were divided and in the last Standard five more points 

 were given to size, these being taken from head, symmetry 

 and condition. 



Ideal Leghorns of Today 



What the Brown Leghorn of the future will be re- 

 mains to be seen. The present ideal in males is a dark, 

 rich red of the same shade in all red sections — an even 



surface colored bird with strongly striped neck and saddle. 

 yellow legs that are what the name implies and a good, 

 five point comb, free from those hideous thutnb marks 

 and wrinkles which are more objectionable than too many 

 or too few serrations. Such a bird is and will be popular. 

 The shade of black in breast, wing-bar, tail, body and fluff 

 should be a greenish black. The purple shade should be 

 carefully avoided as it is associated almost always with 

 minute bronze bars across the feathers, which if present 

 are most pronounced in the wing-bars and coverts of the 

 tail. This is an objection that has been much overlooked 

 in past years, but one that is certainly meeting with great 

 disfavor at the present time. 



The female has been pretty well described in a prev- 

 ious paragraph, but the bird that has the seal brown shade 



SINGLE COMB BROWN LEGHORN COCK 

 The illustration above was drawn from life by Frank- 

 lane L. Sewell, at the Chicago Show in 1904. and is one of 

 the best portraits of an adult Brown Leghorn male we have 

 ever seen. But "Chicago Wonder" was a remarkably fine 

 specimen, being almost ideal in shape, size and color, a rare 

 combination seldom found in one specimen. Bred and ex- 

 hibited by William Ellery Bright, Waltham, Mass. 



on back and wing is to become the popular favorite, even 

 i: it has not done so already. Any suggestion of red on 

 the one side or of grey on the other will not be tolerated 

 for a moment by a true student of this variety. It is, or 

 should be. a Brown Leghorn. Grey Leghorns we never 

 had. Red Leghorns we did away with long ago. 

 Changes in Shape 

 Thus far nothing has been said of the change in shape 

 during all these years. There seems to be a general ten- 

 dency in all breeds to grow smaller and Leghorns are not 

 the exception to the rule, but rather a close exponent of 

 it. The Leghorns of the early 80's were many of them 

 large in body, but shorter in legs and coarser in head than 

 those of today. They gradually, but somewhat rapidly, 

 decreased in size until they became so small that in 1890, 



