BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 



117 



Hawkins wanted a bunch of Barred Rock cockerels to look good in 

 the field. He did not want a bird that handled according to rule 

 that did not look good in the open, as he stood on the ground. One 

 time, as we stood back of his barn, in the creek fiat along the Nassau 

 River, with a bunch of well grown Barred Rock cockerels called up 

 for our inspection, Hawkins said: "I do not say: Do they handle well.'' 

 I say: Do they look good? 1 would not give $5 for a bird that did not 

 look good on the run." 



After all what you see when you look at a chicken is 90 percent. 

 When you take the bird into your hands you may find bad under- 

 color, a crooked breast or stubs, but if these points were perfect and 

 the bird was not a real chicken when he stood on his feet in the 

 coop, he would not be worth a fig. 



Feathers from the wing bow of an exhibition Barred Plymouth 

 Rock pullet, owned by E. B. Thompson. 



In other words, what you find by digging into a bird is only 10 

 percent, enough to spoil an otherwise good bird, but not in itself 

 sufficient to make a good specimen. Give us perfect undercolor, a 

 perfectly straight breastbone and perfectly clean shanks and we 

 haven't anything. We must first have the 90 percent which includes 

 size, typical shape and surface color the features you see when you 

 look at a bird. Then add the perfect undercolor, the perfectly straight 

 breast, perfectly clean shanks, and other points which you find by 

 digging in, and we have a truly wonderful specimen. 



Hawkins put this philosophy into practice, and the result was a 

 well feathered, well balanced type of Barred Rock males in Haw- 



