13 



and docile look. And the head of a Brahma fowl should possess these quali- 

 fications ; too much importance should not be given to breeding for weight 

 or largeness of carcass, over other qualifications. I admire in the Brahma 

 fowl a large frame, of symmetrical proportions and corresponding weight; 

 but a fattened fowl is only fit for the table. I should rather breed from a 

 small cock with a perfect comb than a large one with a crooked comb. A 

 lively cock, mated with large hens, is preferable to a sluggish cock and small 

 hens. Length of legs in a cock is of less importance than in a hen ; and in 

 order to get size and proportion you must have due length of legs ; and 

 even in a hen, it maybe counteracted by judicious mating. A narrow cock 

 and a very wide hen are more likely to breed well than the reverse. It is to 

 the male bird the breeder must look for perfection or defects in the comb, 

 the beautiful yellow color of the legs, and all the fine points of the Brahma. 

 " As to the penciling, I am convinced, by considerable experience, that 

 the two sexes bear a proportionate influence to each other, although I should 

 not hesitate to say that there is more probability of breeding good chickens 

 from a perfectly and darkly penciled pullet or hen and an inferior cook than 

 from a badly colored or marked hen and a cock of superior blood. A hen 

 with a bad comb, mated with a cock whose comb is small and fine, will 

 throw some very fine chickens. A cock with a drooping back and saddle 

 should be mated with a hen very high towards the tail ; and if his hackle be 

 short or scanty, that of the hen should be unusually sweeping and full. If 

 any white stain should appear in the ear lobes, it is very apt to perpetuate 

 itself, and particular care should be taken that the other sex has no sign of it, 

 through several degrees. In shape, style and carriage, the Dark and Light 

 varieties of the Brahma fowl should be precisely similar. In the Light, I 

 think the breeders of this country have surpassed the English. The Light 

 now stands almost on equality with the Dark in size, shape, and in general 

 popularity. The comb of this fowl especially must be more closely looked 

 after. A defective comb tells wofully against the bird. You must breed 

 them even, low and straight. You cannot, I know, get this point to perfection 

 in the cock until a strain has been bred for years. No pure strain ought to 

 breed a comb in which the peculiar triple character is not perfectly distinct. 



SHAPE OF THE COMB AND HEAD. 



" There is a diversity of opinion as to the shape of the comb. It should 

 not exceed half an inch in hight, and instead of rising from the front towards 

 the back and ending in a peak, I should prefer to see it, after arising for 

 half or two-thirds of its length, decrease again towards the back, forming a 

 kind of arch. This kind of comb not only looks well and symmetrical, but 

 according to experience, is likely to breed far more true than any other. The 

 head of the Brahma cannot be too small in proportion to the body. There 

 is no point in this fowl that so truly indicates the high breeding or the blood 

 of the strain as the smallness of the head, and you will find that a small head 

 is accompanied by fineness of flesh, a point never to be lost sight of in this 



