12G AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



and the fourth, a crooked back with the usually accompanying 

 wry tail. 



For a careful study of back conformations, the reader is 

 referred to plates 11 and 12. 



Tail. This is one of the most ornamental sections of the 

 bird. Aside from the head, it is the most striking feature of the 

 male. With a beautiful tail, a bird is finished ; but, with the tail 

 lacking or faulty, the specimen is deficient. 



The tail must be-carried at the proper angle or the beauty of 

 the top contour is marred or entirely lost. If carried too high, 

 the curve between back and tail is destroyed and an unsightly 

 angle substituted. If carried too low, style and the appearance 

 of life and action are gone. Too long tails destroy good balance, 

 because they are out of proportion. They give too much length 

 to the bird. The tail should be of such dimensions as to length, 

 lateral spread and vertical spread that it balances the head and 

 neck. Pinched tails, or tails that do not spread vertically, are 

 very faulty, as a bird that has one is never finished or balanced. 

 A good spread between the lower or rear pair of feathers, hori- 

 zontally, is desirable, as without it the body and back appear too 

 narrow. A fully furnished tail is a rare ornament, therefore 

 highly prized by exhibitors. 



The contour formed by back and tail have so much weight 

 when breed type is determined that it is very nearly impossible 

 to disassociate these two sections. The close connection between 

 them is well shown in the series of illustrations on page 124, 

 plate 11. The four illustrations are of male shape. In Figure 1 

 we see a fairly well proportioned back depicted, but the tail is 

 too long, too bushy and too large as a whole to be in correct 

 proportion to the body. 



Figure 2 illustrates a body and back that slope too much 

 toward the rear. The back is too narrow at junction with tail, 

 which is too flat or carried too low and is too pinched or con- 

 tracted vertically, and also horizontally. Body not filled or 

 rounded out, front or rear, but especially shallow in front of 

 thighs. Wing-points carried too low. 



Figure 3. The appearance as a whole is too solid, compact 

 or blocky. There is too much underfluff and coarse plumage on 

 saddle, in tail coverts, and rear underparts of body. Tail is car- 

 ried too low. Wing-points too low. 



Figure 4 shows a common fault, more common, however, in 

 some varieties than others, of the straight back and tail contour, 



