FOWLS 



69 



FIG. 61. Black Co- 

 chin Bantam pullet 1 



FIG. 62. Black Cochin 

 Bantam cockerel 1 



unsymmetrical and weakly, and are called runts and put out of 

 the way as soon as possible. But occasionally an undersized 

 individual is finely formed, active, and hardy. By mating such 

 a specimen with the smallest specimen of the other sex that 

 can be found (even though the latter is 

 much larger), and by 

 repeated selection of 

 the smallest speci- 

 mens, a dwarf race 

 may be obtained. It 

 could be made, though 

 not so rapidly, by sys- 

 tematic selection of 

 the smallest ordinary 



specimens and by keeping the growing chicks so short of food 

 that they would be stunted. The latter process, however, is so 

 tedious that no one is likely to adopt it. Usually the idea of 

 making a new variety of bantams does not occur to a breeder 



until he sees a good 

 dwarf specimen of 

 a race of which 

 there is no dwarf 

 variety. Then, if 

 he undertakes to 

 make such a vari- 

 ety, he is likely to 

 use in the process 

 both small speci- 

 mens of large races and birds of long-established dwarf races. 

 Dwarf types of most of the popular breeds have been made 

 here and exhibited, but the originators were given very little 

 encouragement to perfect them. 



FIG. 63. Rose-Comb Black 

 Bantam cock 



FIG. 64. Rose-Comb 

 Black Bantam hen 2 



1 Photograph from Dr. J. N. MacRae, Gait, Ontario. 



2 Photograph from Grove Hill Poultry Yards, Waltham, Massachusetts. 



