SEBRIGHT BANTAMS. 247 



" artificial fowls," and their attractiveness consists rather in 

 their beauty than in any economic value. 



SEBRIGHTS. Cock not to exceed twenty, and hen six- 

 teen ounces. For exhibition still less is preferable, but not 

 for breeding. Carriage of the cock, the most conceited it is 

 possible to conceive of ; head thrown back till it touches the 

 nearly upright tail ; wings drooping halfway down the legs ; 

 motions restless and lively, always strutting about as if 

 seeking for antagonists. The bird is, in fact, " game to the 

 backbone," and will attack the largest fowl with the utmost 

 impudence. 



Plumage close and compact, and every feather laced with 

 black all round the edge. The shoulder and tail coverts are 

 the parts most likely to be faulty in this ; but in first-class 

 birds every single feather must be properly edged right up 

 to the head. This part usually appears darker from the 

 smaller size of the feathers ; but the nearer the head is to 

 the rest of the body in colour the better. The only excep- 

 tions allowable in the lacing are on the primary quills or 

 flight feathers of the wings, which should have a clear 

 ground, and be only tipped with black. The tail feathers 

 ought to be laced, and in the hen must be so ; but in the 

 cock this is rather rare. In his case a clear ground colour 

 throughout, nicely tipped with black, may be allowed to 

 pass instead. The cock must be perfectly hen-feathered 

 throughout, his tail not only square and straight, without 

 sickles, but the neck and saddle hackles resembling those of 

 the hen. The late Mr. Hewitt, however, a most eminent 

 authority on this breed, remarked to us that while this is 

 imperative for exhibition, he always found such cocks nearly 

 or quite sterile, probably in consequence of the long inter- 

 breeding necessary to maintain such a point in perfection. 

 He recommends, therefore, that a cock for breeding should 



