PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 217 



eties was not the result of a decision arrived at or a selection 

 determined upon quickly, but rather that it was the result of a 

 gradual development in the tastes and education of those expo- 

 nents of true beauty as revealed in the buff varieties, becomes 

 most apparent after a brief perusal of any of the authentic de- 

 scriptions of our first importations or early American and Eng- 

 lish productions of Buff Cochin, which was the original buff 

 fowl of all lands, so far as known, and which descriptions we 

 take in order that comparisons may be made with the present 

 standard description of these varieties ; or, more clearly con- 

 vincing yet is a comparison of these descriptions of the early 

 importations and native productions with living specimens of 

 the truest color types. Judging from these comparisons, the 

 almost incredibly wide contrast between the two must have 

 developed gradually, and this evolution is perhaps nowhere bet- 

 ter or more clearly indicated than in the successive editions of 

 the American Standard of Excellence and its successor, the 

 American Standard of Perfection, brief extracts from which will 

 be sufficient, not only to make this point clear, but to show the 

 progressive steps by which the present popular buff shade was 

 acquired. 



Color requirements in the 1875 edition are placed on each 

 section along with the shape requirements for that section, and 

 in some instances strangely mingled, and only on a few occasions 

 do we find the color requirements of one section identical with 

 those of another. ". . . Rich clear buff" "rich, abundant, 

 clear buff hackle" "rich, clean buff" "a clear, deep buff" are 

 the color descriptions found of some sections for the male, while 

 such sections as wings and fluff have no color description for 

 plumage, except that wings are required to be "quite free from 

 a mealy appearance." 



All the evidence that we may obtain from the successive 

 Standard descriptions indicates that the greatest advance that 

 has been made in nearly half a century is most clearly brought 

 out by the difference in the descriptions of the color for the tail 

 section. In 1875, "a rich, dark chestnut, or bronzy-chestnut 

 mixed with blackdark chestnut preferred ;" needless to say 

 there is no admiration expressed for chestnut colored tails, to 

 ignore .completely those that contain any amount of black, in 

 either males or females of any buff variety at the present time, 

 when the tail is expected not only to be buff, but to be of the 

 same shade as the rest of the plumage. This description of color 

 for this section remained practically unchanged until the 1898 



