OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



breed spread rapidly. It was impossible to supply the demand 

 from the original stock, and, as there is usually more than one 

 way of producing a type by crossing, good imitations of the 

 original were soon abundant. Farmers and market poultrymen 

 by thousands took up the Plymouth Rock, while all over the 

 land fanciers were trying to perfect the color which their critical 



taste found very poor. 



Other varieties of the Plym- 

 outh Rock. The success of the 

 Plymouth Rock gave fresh im- 

 petus to efforts to make new 

 breeds and varieties of the same 

 general character. Great as was 

 its popularity, the new breed did 

 not suit all. Some did not like 

 the color ; some objected to the 

 single comb, thinking that a rose 

 comb or a pea comb had advan- 

 tages ; some preferred a shorter, 

 blockier body; others wanted a 

 larger, longer body. The off- 

 colored birds which new races 

 usually produce in considerable numbers, even when the greater 

 number come quite true, also suggested to some who obtained 

 them new varieties of the Plymouth Rock, while to others it 

 seemed better policy to give them new names and exploit them 

 as new and distinct breeds. 



Both black and white specimens-came often in the early flocks 

 of Barred Plymouth Rocks. The black ones were developed as 

 a distinct breed, called the Black Java. The white ones, after 

 going for a while under various names, and after strong oppo- 

 sition from those who claimed that the name " Plymouth Rock" 

 belonged exclusively to birds of the color with which the name 

 had become identified, finally secured recognition as White 



FIG. 47. Silver-Penciled Plymouth 

 Rock hen 



