PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 327 



The upper web of the secondary feathers, that is, the nearer 

 web to the body, is supposed to be black, while the lower or 

 outer web should be white. As the body is approached the pro- 

 portion of black in the upper web diminishes and the white 

 increases, so that the wing shows only white when folded or, to 

 localize the description still more, the wing-bay is white. Previ- 

 ous Standards have described secondaries in these words : "Sec- 

 ondaries, lower portion of lower web, white, sufficient to secure 

 a white wing-bay, the white extending around the ends of 

 feathers and lacing upper portion of web, this color growing 

 wider in shorter secondaries, the five next to body being white 

 on surface when wing is folded; remainder of each secondary, 

 black." This description, though laborious and encumbered 

 somewhat by phraseology, will, nevertheless, be found to be 

 accurate upon analysis. From it might be deduced the fact that 

 the amount of black in the secondaries is relatively proportionate 

 to the length of the feather, the shorter ones next to the body 

 being white or having a lesser amount of black than those that 

 are larger and more remote. Black, however, whatever the 

 extent, should be black and not a modified shade of that color. 

 Where the secondaries, or primaries for that matter, are black 

 they should be black, and where white is required, white that is 

 nowise modified should be found. Furthermore, between the 

 two, a sharp line of definition should exist. Feather No. 2 in 

 Plate 111, the second feather from the left, shows gray shading 

 in with the white, also too much white at the end of the feather 

 for a secondary near the center of the wing; the third feather 

 from the left, too much white at the base ; the fourth is an ideal 

 secondary near the center of the wing. The flights of the males 

 as a usual occurrence are stronger in color, that is, the black is 

 more perfectly distributed than in the flights of the females. 

 Flights splashed with white are, then, much more seriously 

 defective in males than in females and in the young than in the 

 old females. 



Tail. The main tail feathers of both sexes should be black 

 from top to base ; often, of course, white creeps in, but compara- 

 tively little difficulty is experienced in this particular. The real 

 difficulty lies in another direction, to produce tail-coverts of 

 lustrous greenish-black with narrow lacing or edging of white. 

 Particularly in the females it is difficult to breed the black 

 entirely across these broad coverts and maintain the uniform 



