368 AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION 



that most nearly meets the requirements of the Standard of 

 Perfection. But is it? It is not always, even with the most 

 conscientious and the keenest judges. There is in some birds a 

 certain quality that is very hard to describe unless we limit 

 that description to one word and call it the "catchy" quality, 

 or the "pleasing" bird, as it is expressed by the more refined 

 exponents of the craft. 



Under our present mode of comparison judging, and this 

 mode has its advantages as well as its drawbacks, the order 

 seems to be that the catchy or pleasing specimens are picked 

 out and then examined for defects according to the judges' 

 interpretation of the Standard. Under this method the bird 

 in poor condition and the one that has not catchy qualities 

 fare alike, being passed by while the pleasing bird, if he has 

 no glaring faults, has a good chance to win. 



Too Close Cooping. There are several methods of more 

 or less merit of fitting for the show room. The best is to let 

 the bird fit itself; the poorest, and that which is more gener- 

 ally used, consists in confining the bird to an exhibition cage 

 two or three feet square and either starving it or stuffing it as 

 the fancy of the owner dictates. In such quarters, this bird 

 has the pleasure of moping around for two or three weeks. It 

 has a clean coop, perhaps, plenty of the best of food and a 

 nice bright tin cup to drink out of, but after all that has been 

 done, this bird is being subjected to the most unnatural life 

 that a fowl could live. If the cage is kept clean, the bird is 

 clean also, but its appetite soon diminishes, its digestion is 

 soon disordered, its- feathers soon become rough, and its head 

 loses color. The bird deteriorates from the moment that it is 

 put into the cage. The only advantage is that you have a tame 

 bird. Unless it is endowed with an unusual amount of vitality, 

 it has become so lifeless and docile that it should not even, in 

 many cases, be admitted to classification in the gallinaceous 

 division. Of all the idiotic methods that poultrymen employ, 

 this is the most stupid and foolish. 



Range the Best Conditioner. Those who have exhibited 

 at the early winter shows say the early part of December or 

 the latter part of November may have been favored by one 

 of our occasional warm autumns, when the weather permitted 

 keeping the birds out on the summer runs. Under these cir- 

 cumstances the birds probably went into the shows in the best 

 possible condition. If such is not your experience, it is the 

 experience of others. It should be therefore, our aim to pro- 



