160 POULTRY-CRAFT. 



222. Mating Houdans. Houdans lose black very rapidly in eachsuc- 

 ceeding moult, and in mating the age of the specimen has to be considered. 

 Young birds of either sex in which the black does not largely predominate, 

 should not be used. Good matings are: (i) A cock a little darker than 

 Standard, with Standard hens. (2) Cock as above, with pullets a little too 

 dark for exhibition. (3) Cockerel nearly black, with Standard pullets. 

 (4) Cockerel as in (3), with light colored hens. Special attention should 

 be given to the crest of the male. It is never as good as in the best females, 

 but unless it is fairly developed and good in form, the greater part of the 

 offspring are likely to have very poor crests. 



223. Mating Spangled and Penciled Hamburgs and Polish. For 



all these varieties, single matings of Standard birds are used. Experts in 

 these varieties advise that a mating which gives good results be kept unchanged 

 as long as the birds comprising it can be used for breeders. 



224. Mating White Varieties. In those white varieties for which 

 the Standard requires pure white plumage and bright yellow legs and skin, 

 the best mating is of fowls with shanks and skin a good yellow, and just the 

 faintest creamy tint in the plumage, a little stronger on the backs of the males 

 than elsewhere, and generally a little stronger next the skin than on the surface, 

 but not anywhere approaching a straw color. The backs of young males 

 should be quite white. As a rule a cock will show more color than he did as 

 a cockerel. Those which at two years old show little color are most desirable 

 breeders. In breeding the white varieties which do not have yellow skin and 

 legs, the pure white plumage is less difficult to get. 



225. Mating Black Varieties. The correct black is a brilliant black 

 with greenish luster ; the faulty black has a dead rusty look or a purplish cast. 

 The commonest color defect in black fowls is white, or gray, in the flights, 

 often only a mere tip of grayish white. Breeders have found it difficult to 

 breed this entirely out, and the usual practice is to tolerate it in all round good 

 specimens, at the same time avoiding mating together males and females having 

 the fault in common. In black fowls with yellow skin and legs : Cochins, 

 Wyandottes, Leghorns, clean yellow shanks are rarely produced. In Black 

 Langshans yellow in the feet generally indicates the presence of Cochin blood. 

 Breeding from birds having the fault not only retains the objectionable color, 

 but makes it harder to maintain the true Langshan shape. 



226. Mating Buff Varieties. The buff varieties, with the exception 

 of Cochins, are all new, and the up-to-date Cochin might without great 

 impropriety be styled a new variety. Though buff is called a " solid " color, 

 it is by no means an easy color to handle. Breeders find it quite as difficult 

 to get one uniform shade of buff in all sections and keep it, as to get any 

 combination of colors and markings described in the Standard. At present 



