BREEDS DESCRIBED 



There are three standard varieties in the Plym- 

 outh Rock family, viz., the Barred, White, and 

 Plymouth Buff. With all of them the comb is 

 Rocks single and serrated, and medium to 



small in size; the ear-lobes are red, while the skin, 

 beak, legs and toes should be of a deep-yellow 

 color. The bodies are well balanced with regard 

 to shape and symmetry, being of neither a blocky 

 nor an angular type. Standard weights are, cock, 

 9>2 pounds; cockerel, 8 pounds; hen, 7^ pounds; 

 pullet, 6K pounds. 



Barred Plymouth Rocks. Breeds may come and 

 breeds may go, but it will be a long time before 

 one of them usurps the prestige of the Barred 

 Rock in America. For years they have stood at 

 the head of the procession, and to-day it is very 

 probable that there are more Barred Plymouth 

 Rock chickens in this country than of any two 

 other breeds, on account of the large numbers of 

 them to be found on the farms. The bars on 

 feathers should be narrow and parallel and alter- 

 nately white and bluish-black in color. The dou- 

 ble-mating system* is generally used in breeding 

 exhibition Barred Rocks, and considerable skill is 

 required in breeding this variety for fancy points, 

 owing to the difficulty in getting the proper shade 

 of color and correct markings of plumage. 



*By " double mating" is meant the use of two separate matings to pro- 

 duce birds of standard color and markings in each of the two sexes. 



83 



