PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 153 



supposed to take this direction. (See definition of barring in 

 glossary.) This makes the bars parallel, with one another. Nar- 

 row bars of equal width, all parallel, certainly produce some very 

 pleasing effects, but owing to the difficulty of producing them, 

 birds that possess them are exceptionally few. Variations from 

 the rule take many different forms. In the first place, it is very 

 difficult to produce bars that run absolutely straight across the 

 feathers. It has been approximated in the plumage of the female 

 and to almost the same degree in some sections of the male plum- 

 age, but in hackle and saddle there remains a very strong ten- 

 dency to assume a V-shaped bar. Breeders have made great 

 effort during recent years to straighten out the bars in these 

 sections and not without some degree of success, for the bars 

 in these sections are certainly much more nearly straight than 

 they were a few years ago. That is, the open end of the inverted 

 V is much wider than it used to be. In fact, the V has opened 

 to such an extent that the effect of the bars in these sections in 

 some of the specimens that excel most is that of being nearly 

 straight across the feather. That the bars are not absolutely 

 straight across is due to the difficulty of breeding bars that will 

 be straight in the center of the feathers of these afore-named 

 male sections. Bars, even in these sections, are straight enough 

 to be so-called in the border or web of the feather, but seem to 

 follow the direction of the barbs of the feather in the center. 

 Thus, the construction of the feather in these sections seems to 

 be the obstacle to overcome. Bars are much more nearly straight 

 in the sections : breast, wing-coverts, main tail and tail-coverts, 

 in which this construction of the feather is less pronounced. 



Because the border or thinly barbed portion of the feather is 

 much more narrow in nearly all sections, structurally, the female 

 plumage resembles that of male breast and wing-coverts rather 

 than the hackle and saddle plumage, which is quite different. 

 If the bars are ideal, that is, coincide with the definition of 

 "barring," the two edges will be parallel and will have what 

 some breeders call "square" or "square-edged" bars ; that is, 

 bars that meet the edges of the feather at right angles, which 

 would not be the case if the bars were "curved" or V-shaped in- 

 stead of straight across. 



Bars are sometimes "notched" or "scalloped," that is, while 

 they seem straight at the edges of the feathers they do not main- 

 tain this direction throughout their entire length but become 



