BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 111 



the male makes him appear the lighter of the two sexes in color; and 

 the female, being less barred, is more colored, more strongly pig- 

 mented with black, with the result that her black bar is wider than 

 the black bar found in her sons and brothers. Examine a farmer's 

 flock of 6 to 8-week-old Plymouth Rock chicks and you will find that 

 the cockerels are infinitely "more barred" than the pullets, and the 

 cockerels are, therefore, cleaner and lighter in color. 



The insistent demand has been for black and white bars of equal 

 width in both sexes, and in order to produce cockerels of this kind it 

 has been necessary to use dark females. The extent of the black 

 bar, its color, is largely inherited from the female parent, but the 

 pattern for barring is linked with the male sex, making the male the 

 more prepotent parent for the factor of barring; the female for the 

 degree and intensity of that black color which is carried in each 

 dark bar. 



First instructions on breeding. The early breeders soon learned 

 the breeding tendency in the variety. Each breeder, whether a novice 

 or experienced, had been left to his own devices, and while many 

 ma tings resulted in failure to produce what was wanted, it seems 

 remarkable that as early as 1879 so much specific information should 

 have been collected on mating for color. In this year F. H. Corbin 

 wrote: 



Five different matings have been advocated and practiced as follows: 

 Xo. 1. A male light in color mated to dark females. 

 Xo. 2. A male dark in color mated to light females. 

 X T o. 3. A male dark in color mated to dark females. 

 X T o. 4. Birds matching in the show pen. 



Xo. 5. A female medium in color mated with a male two points or shades 

 lighter in color. 



Corbin preferred mating No. 5 as "the best mating for breeding 

 purposes." 



He described mating No. 2, which is the reverse of No. 5, as 

 "Objectionable, and it should not be practiced, except as a necessity 

 to utilize stock, and even then it seldom proves satisfactory." The 

 beginner of today should get the full significance of this statement, 

 to-wit: in breeding Barred Plymouth Rocks, one of the longest estab- 

 lished and most elementary rules is not to make a mating in which 

 the male is dark and the females are light in color. 



Mating No. 3, which consisted of a dark male to dark females, 

 was described by Corbin as one that "should never be made use of." 

 He pointed out that by this mating it was impossible to produce any 

 number of chicks having desired yellow legs and beaks. "They will 

 invariably have legs either dark or spotted." Again his knowledge 

 of the inheritance of color in the plumage was accurate for he spoke 

 of such a mating producing pullets that would run very dark, while a 

 few cockerels could be obtained fit for exhibition. However, his 

 objection to cockerels produced in this way was strong, for it necessi- 



