GAME FOWLS. 189 



blacks. Hence the Pile cock has the same colour on his 

 wing, but a white bar ; and hackles that would be slightly 

 marked with black are marked with white instead, though 

 this is disliked just as black is in the Black-red hackle. 

 Generally a very little black or coloured ticking runs 

 through the white, and is not objected to. Yellow legs are 

 the colour for Piles ; and light willow are also shown, but 

 not liked so well. Once white legs were fashionable, but 

 are now most unpopular of all as regards exhibition Game. 



Piles have to be occasionally crossed from the Black-red 

 to keep up the colour ; but all the Black-red chickens from 

 such a cross should be destroyed, as they are of little value, 

 and corrupt the Black-red blood, which it is so important to 

 nearly all other varieties should be kept pure. 



Whites, blacks, blacks with brassy (or yellow-marked) 

 wings, and Silver Birchens (the cock like the Silver Duck- 

 wing, the hen a dark dirty grey) are still occasionally shown, 

 but very rarely, except in the Old English classes. 



Game cocks are generally " dubbed," or have the comb 

 and wattles cut off close to the head with shears, at about six 

 months old the right age is when these appendages have 

 ceased to grow. Of late an agitation has commenced against 

 the practice, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals has obtained a conviction against it as cruelty. 

 It is not improbable that, as the fowls are bred for 

 generations purely for the show-pen, without any reference 

 to fighting, the necessity for dubbing the exhibition variety 

 may gradually die out. But at present, all who actually 

 breed the fowls consider it necessary ; and it is indeed 

 almost impossible to keep them without it, unless every 

 cockerel can be kept separate, which is difficult, owing to 

 their great flying capabilities. If they do meet, as a Game 

 cock is so built that he strikes with his spur wherever he 

 holds with his beak, the result to an undubbed bird is either 



