60 THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



Feather is not merely to meet the Standard requirements and fulfill 

 the eye of the breeder and judge. Feather is one of the important 

 points in indicating the masculinity of a male. Immature cockerels 

 are equally immature in plumage. Males of low constitutional vigor 

 never develop wealth and furnish of feather. Full development of 

 feather is typical of the mature, virile male. It gives him masculinity 

 and markedly distinguishes him from the female. A weak and effemi- 

 nate male invariably lacks the complete coat of plumage which is a 

 sex character of a strong, virile cock. 



A strong head and large face are points that also determine mas- 

 culinity. Too many males are effeminate in head features. In addi- 

 tion may be mentioned substance, as a quality which gives body to 

 the male and makes of him ''a rooster." Insistence on good substance 

 eliminates from consideration all narrow bodied, long legged birds, 

 which, like the scantily feathered ones, are usually weak. 



Body shape and typical shape. The American Poultry Associa- 

 tion has failed to differentiate between the features that arise from 

 body formation and those that are to be attributed to plumage and 

 has, for instance, considered length of neck, and contour of neck, as 

 shape of neck, although the one is dependent on bone structure and 

 the other is an outline dependent upon plumage. 



There are but two descriptions in the Standard and two sections 

 on the score card, one for shape, the other for color. This naturally 

 leads to an over-emphasis of type as determined by plumage, although 

 in a few breeds, such as Exhibition Games, where feather is bred as 

 short, narrow and hard as possible, it has led to an abnormal struc- 

 ture of body, resulting in a height or reach that impairs the utility 

 functions of those fowls. An understanding of structure and feather 

 as separate factors which contribute to shape, is desirable; the study 

 of the exterior alone is superficial and leads to ephemeral ideals. 



What a bird looks like in the yard or show coop and how the 

 same bird handles in the hand of the breeder are two separate mat- 

 ters. A cockerel may have a pleasing outline, but upon handling 

 it is found that he has a thin thigh, a poorly fleshed breast, a pent-up 

 keel bone, or a crooked breast bone. 



A few of the points of body formation must be cut on the score 

 card when they are found defective, and the growing tendency is to 

 take body formation more and more into consideration. In order 

 to distinguish between body formation and general outline, we recom- 

 mend the use of the score card shown on page 61, which we devised 

 after several years of experience in judging score card shows. 



We found that the typical shape of the bird could only be secured 

 when the bird posed naturally in the coop. The moment you touched 

 him, he might crowd to one side of the cage, or pinch down his 

 feathers and thus lose his typical carriage. On the other hand, there 

 were defects of body formation that should be cut in scoring, such 

 as a crooked breast, and this fault could only be determined by taking 



