54 



THE LEGHORNS 



believed White Leghorn eggs must be laid by White Leg- 

 horn hens. This helped the boom of the White Leghorns 

 greatly, at the same time increasing the interest in the 

 other varieties, so that the wonderful popularity of 

 Whites is not without its beneficial effects on the Buffs 

 and Browns, in the utilitarian way. 



The boom of the Leghorn as a business hen, is 

 largely responsible for the popularity of Leghorns as an 

 exhibition fowl today. 



Great Changes in Shape of Leghorns 



The modern exhibition White Leghorn of today is 

 as different from the high-tailed, short-bodied Leghorn of 

 thirty years ago as the exhibition Game is from the Pit 

 Game. The refinement in type improved the utilitarian 

 qualities, the longer bodied and deeper keeled bird of the 

 present time, being the better egg producer. 



The changes in shape of Leghorns are admirably il- 

 lustrated by Franklane L. Sewell, in his article on "The 

 Evolution of Leghorn Type," beginning on page 

 23 of this book. Leghorn types from the crude 

 specimens bred in the early seventies to the modern 

 graceful and 

 sprightly Leghorn 

 are clearly outlined 

 and intelligently 

 commented upon 

 by Mr. Sewell, af- 

 fording an inter- 

 esting and instruc- 

 tive history of 

 shape. 



Fashionable Type 

 of White Leg- 

 horns 



F a s h i o nable 

 types i n White 

 Leghorns were 

 less in evidence 

 thirty years ago 

 than ten years 

 later, when the 

 real refining pro- 

 cess of the crude 

 material at hand 

 began. The birds shown in the early nineties by Knapp Bros, 

 were excellent in head points, color and type albeit the 

 carriage of tail was higher than is considered good form 

 today. In the illustration (Fig. 1) we have the type of 

 male bird shown by Knapp Bros. The comb is a little 

 larger, the back shorter and the tail carried more upright 

 than in winning specimens of today, but otherwise the 

 graceful sprightly carriage is the same. Of the winning 

 females, many would stand a very fair chance of winning 

 at our leading shows today. In our own experience in 

 breeding White Leghorns from 1885 to 1889, we found 

 little difficulty in producing a large percentage of good 

 females both in color and type, but in males, too many 

 were "inclined upward" in tails and the surface color was 

 too often tinged with brassiness. Whether the modern 

 art of bleaching had not been discovered at this time, or 

 whether we did not select the silvery white plumaged and 

 quilled males and female breeders, carefully enough, the 

 fact remains, we, as well as many other breeders of White 

 Leghorns, had plenty of males that would not pass muster 

 as truly or untruly white birds at a modern poultry show. 



Fig. 1— Fir 



Legh- 



In order to convey to our readers a fairly accurate 

 idea of the accepted White Leghorn type from 1885 to 

 1890, we reprint here the illustrations (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3), 

 made by J. Henry Lee, which appeared in the book 

 "P h i 1 o s ophy of 

 Judging Fowls" 

 by Felch, Babcock 

 and Lee, 1889. 



The prevailing 

 fault of Leghorns 

 at that time is 

 clearly illustrated 

 in the carriage of 

 the tail in both 

 male and female 

 (Figs. 2 and 3), 

 the tail of the 

 male being close 

 to what is called a 

 "squirrel tail," a 

 disqualification un- 

 dei the present 

 Standard, but not 

 in the e a r li e r 

 Standards, which 

 no doubt account- 

 ed for the large 

 numbers of squir- 

 rel tailed Leghorns bred and exhibited thirty years ago. 

 It was a hereditary defect which took many years of 

 careful selection to overcome. In the Standard of Per- 

 f ction, 1888, the tail of the White Leghorn male was 

 described as follows: "Large, full and carried upright;" 

 in the female, "long, full and carried upright." That 

 was what Leghorn breeders were asked to breed to, 

 but many good fanciers did not like this Standard ideal 

 of tail and the gradual change in the carriage of the tail 

 started soon afterward, the fashion decreeing a lower 

 angle at which the tail was to be carried and with it 

 came the longer back, deeper body and longer shank 

 This fashion became 

 more general after 1893 

 when the new types of 

 White Leghorns began 

 to appear at the Madi- 

 son Square Garden, New 

 York, one of which was 

 the Whiting Type, so- 

 called because of the 

 laige size, length of back 

 and depth of body of the 

 specimens exhibited by 

 Whiting Farm of Holy- 

 oke, Mass. 

 The Whiting Leghorns _^ 



W. F. Whiting, who ^^ 

 originated this new race =& . 

 of White Leghorns, was 

 a genuine fancier, and 

 one of the most intelli- Fig. 

 gent breeders of Leg- 

 horns in New England. 



It was purely a fancy with Mr. Whiting, commercial re- 

 ward being no object. These birds were the sensation in 

 the Leghorn alley at New York in 1896, 1897 and 1898. 

 sweeping all before them. They were in a class by them- 

 selves and dazzled the judges as well as the exhibitor.5 by 



