SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 177 



true that when the breed began to attract attention, new crosses 

 were made, and improvement came in the same way that Ray secured 

 improvement in the already existing stock of Silver Seabrights by 

 resorting to a Chittagong cross. 



Hamburg-Brahma crosses. It is known that both Silver Spangled 

 Hamburgs and Dark Brahmas were crossed, and that these crosses 

 were amalgamated with the existing stock of Sebright Cochins. In 

 those days the spangling of the Hamburg w r as not as highly devel- 

 oped as is seen in the pronounced pear-shaped spangling of today. 

 Oftentimes the spangle was only a splash of black at the end of the 

 feather, while in other birds the spangling showed the rudiments of 

 lacing. See illustration. The penciling of the Dark Brahma was 

 also more faintly determined and less strongly established. The 

 natural result was that when the mooney spangling of the Hamburg 

 w r as crossed with the crescentic lines of penciling carried by the Dark 

 Brahma, there developed a strong tendency to lacing. 



The matter is quite correctly summed up in the Standard of Perfec- 

 tion in the statement thai;: 



Just what breeds entered into the first Silver Wyandottes, it is impossible to say. 

 That Dark Brahmas and Silver Spangled Hamburgs were two of them has been 

 proved, as a cross of these two breeds produces fowls that resemble Wyandottes, but 

 fail in shape and partly in color. 



In writing of the new breed of Wyandottes in 1886, three years 

 after their admission to the Standard, B. N. Pierce, the most promi- 

 nent western poultry judge of that day, said: 



That they were principally the result of a cross between Dark Brahmas and 

 Hamburgs is quite apparent, often indicated by reversion to white ear lobes and 

 to spangles in the plumage of the females, which come from the Hamburg; and to 

 the wing markings and other characteristics of the Dark Brahmas. 



F. A. Houdlette, who named the breed, has written that he never 

 had any doubt about the Dark Brahma figuring largely in the make-up 

 of the Wyandotte, and that the first stock he had was of Dark 

 Brahma origin crossed with Hamburgs and White Cochins. He 

 adds that the White Cochin blood kept cropping out in white chicks, 

 which later on were bred together and became the White Wyandottes. 



Whittaker develops an ideal. John P. Ray was a prominent 

 breeder of the early stock, and the Ray birds went under the name 

 of Sebright Cochins. In the spring of 1873, L. H. Whittaker, of 

 Michigan, learned of the Ray stock and made inquiry concerning it. 

 The next year Whittaker secured a cock and pullet from Ray. The 

 following year he secured considerable additional stock of Ray's 

 Sebright Cochins, and wrote to Ray that he didn't want feather- 

 legged birds, as he had decided to "breed them clean-legged with 

 the edging or lacing of black entirely around the feathers, and with 

 small combs." Ray evidently wanted the feather-legged type, for 



