THE LEGHORNS 



55 



their v.:.;iorm excellence in type and color, albeit, some 

 gooJ juviges declared that they were too large and coarse 

 to lie characteristic of the true Leghorn type. In our re- 

 port of the White Leghorn classes at the New York 

 Show ■.: February 1 to 5, 1898, which appeared in the 

 "American Fancier" the following week we remarked: 

 "White Leghorns were exceedingly well represented, the 

 quality being very superior, as a rule. Whiting Farm 

 made the greatest record ever known at a New York 

 Show, winning every first prize in very strong competi- 

 tion, ^Ir. Cornell's birds being decidedly first-class, while 

 the exhibit of Plainfield Poultry Farm was highly meri- 

 torious. The difference in type existing between Whiting 

 Farm Leghorns and others has been magnified into 

 something remarkable. Such is not the case." Several years 

 afterward when Ezra Cornell, E. G. Wyckofif and others 

 began ij take up the work after Mr. Whiting retired from 

 the field, a new and shining light in the White Leghorn 

 fancy appeared on the scene and made a great record 

 from his first exhibit at New York to the present 

 day. This was D. W. Young of Monroe, New York. 

 His strain was carefully selected from the flock of 

 White Leghorns bred for many years by his father, on 

 the Young homestead at Highlands. Mr. Young's own 

 story of how he built up his strain and how he produced 

 the fashionable and popular type of White Leghorn of 

 today will be found in this chapter. It will prove instruc- 

 tive an(i valuable reading for all breeders of White Leg- 

 horns. 



Modern Exhibition Leghorns 



The modern exhibition Leghorn dates its beginning 

 in 1893. The types of Mr. Cornell's famous cockerel 

 "Prince Purity," and his mate, a pullet, both winners of 

 first prizes at New York in 1893, were accepted by judges 

 and breeders at that time as the most advanced and de- 

 sirable. We reproduce here a sketch made for Mr. Cor- 

 nell by Franklane L. Sewell. White Leghorns weie the 

 largest in size of all the Leghorn family. They were at 

 the same time graceful birds, full of curves, and as trim 

 and sprightly as a Game cock. Their tails were well fur- 



-S-^.. 



Sr- 



Fig. 4— The Whiting Type of Legho 



nished and spread. Then came an era when small birds 

 with white plumage and pinched tails won. About four 

 yeais ago a change for the better v. as ir.ade, and larger 

 birds with all the characteristics of the old Leghorn were 

 demanded. Mr. Whiting was shrewd enough to see the 

 point at once and 

 started in t 3 

 breed for the 

 to date bird. So/ 

 did Knapp Bros 

 Ezra Cornell and 

 others. The 

 suit is we have i 

 most beautiful 

 White Leghorn 

 today, that stands 

 well up on its 

 legs, shows the 

 graceful curve of 

 the hocks instead 

 of losing it in the 

 overhanging body 

 and fluff. Of 

 course, there is 

 ov e r d oi n g the 

 size and leading 

 the breed toward coarseness, but judges will soon 

 realize this danger and act accordingly. White Leg- 

 horns made rapid progress after that with the late Ezra 

 Cornell's birds setting the fashion. 



A careful comparison of the shape of the male and 

 female with the shape of winners at our recent shows will 

 prove the Cornell pair (Fig. 5) to be of the same type as 

 first-class specimens of today, albeit the ultra fashionable 

 droop of the tail in the male is not as pronounced. But 

 measured by the present illustrated Standard ideal, the 

 cockerel carries his tail only a trifle higher than at the re- 

 quired angle of 45 degrees. In length of back "Prince 

 Purity" exceeds the Standard ideal but not the twentieth 

 century ideal of the White Leghorn breeders. Length of 

 back and tail is the latter's hobby, which has become the 

 fashion. But like all new fashions, 

 extremes are sure to follow, so we 

 find White Leghorn males with im- 

 mensely long backs and tails, the latter 

 drooping in the characteristic Sumatra 

 Game style, the greater and lesser 

 sickles losing in breadth and firmness 

 of web of feathers, becoming as soft 

 as tail coverts, but reaching out in 

 length far beyond the main tail feath- 

 ers dropping instead of curving over 

 the top of the tail. While this fea- 

 ture may be desirable in the Sumatra 

 and the Phoenix fowl, it is not a Leg- 

 horn characteristic. Leghorns are 

 hard and close feathered birds, any 

 approach to loose feathering in body 

 and fluflf and in sickle feathers creat- 

 ing a suspicion that foreign blood has 

 been used to obtain the desired length 

 of tail. As the Silver Duckwing Leg- 

 horn had considerable of the Shin- 

 awarataos or Japanese Phoenix blood 

 in its. original make-up, long flowing 

 tails were not uncommon in the males 

 (if that variety and with both male and 



