No. 4.] 



FARM POULTRY 



403 



best way to learn this is by carefully studying a good ideal 

 illustration of a White Plymouth Rock. The ideal drawing 

 represents a bird perfect, according to the artist's interpre- 

 tation of the ideas of the best breeders and judges, in every 

 section, — a bird free from faults. Sometimes photographs 

 are obtained which are quite as good, and look more true to 

 life ; but the photograph so often fails to do typical birds 

 justice in their best points, and so often distorts some sec- 

 tions, that I think it much safer for those who want to learn 

 the best types in the different breeds to study the ideal 

 drawings first, and so 

 learn to make proper 

 allowance for faults in 

 specimens they see, and 

 also in photographs and 

 draw^ings that are por- 

 traits of individual birds, 

 and hence show in some 

 degree the faults of the 

 fowls they represent. 



It will help one to ap- 

 preciate the points of 

 excellence in a breed if 

 he will study, in connec- 

 tion with the ideal rep- 

 resentation of it, the au- 

 thorized description of 

 the variety published in 



the " Standard of Perfection." This description tells him 

 briefly what the drawing shows him, and by studying the 

 two together he gets a better api)rehension of the t3^pe than 

 he could from either alone. From book and picture one 

 who had never before seen a White Plymouth Rock could 

 get an idea of it good enough to make it impossible for him 

 to be imposed upon with fowls of different type, or with 

 fowls having serious blemishes. 



Even if one is somewhat familiar with a breed, it is well 

 for him to justify his ideas of good tj'pe by comparing them 

 with approved standards. Theoretically, the way to learn 



i'AiK OF Ideal Light Bkahmas. 



