PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 251 



THE FEMALE 



The best quality of female must have an even shade of gray 

 throughout. Each feather of back, wing-bow and coverts, tail- 

 coverts, breast and body, should be penciled with a darker shade, 

 which is described as dark penciling; it should not be black, 

 because this destroys the even shade of gray so desirable in the 

 plumage of the female of this variety. The Standard requires 

 gray, with distinct dark pencilings, outlines of which conform 

 to shape of feather ; the feathers should be free from white shaft- 

 ing. This would indicate that the female should be of a gray 

 shade, penciled with a darker shade deep enough in color to 

 show the outlines distinctly, and these outlines must conform to 

 the shape of the feather. The breast of the female, while 

 usually somewhat lighter in shade just below the throat, should 

 deepen into the same shade of color down under the body and 

 between the thighs. While the fluff is gray penciled with a 

 darker shade in some specimens, the shade is with most speci- 

 mens lighter than in the body plumage. 



The penciling of the feathers of the breast and body, the 

 wing-bows, and the thighs should have at least three distinct 

 rows. Some of the feathers on some specimens have even more 

 than this. For illustrations, see Plates 76, 77, 78. 



The Neck. The neck plumage should be silvery white; the 

 center portion of each feather black, slightly penciled with gray ; 

 the feathers in front of the neck like those on the breast. The 

 black centers of the neck feathers should be almost as large as 

 the feather and edged with silvery white. The neck plumage of 

 the finest females are frequently penciled almost as distinctly as 

 are the feathers of the back. See illustration, Plate 80, Page 257. 



Wings. Besides the shoulders, bows and coverts, the color 

 and markings of which conform with those of breast and back 

 and have already been described, the primaries and secondaries 

 should be considered. When commendable, primaries are black 

 with a narrow but distinct single line of gray on the edge of the 

 lower web. A correctly marked female flight feather is shown in 

 Plate 79. The outer web of each of the longer secondaries should 

 be penciled with gray in lines which run parallel with the lower 

 or outer edge of the feather. The shorter ones, or those nearest 

 the body, should be penciled on that portion of the feather that 



