408 



POULTRY CULTURE 



shade from very light to very dark, and with both rose and single 

 combs, was a common type in one or more communities in the 

 state of New York, and furnished the material from which the Sil- 

 ver Wyandotte was developed, largely by selection. This version 

 carries more probability than the other, even though it offers no 

 explanation of the origin of the color pattern and makes no attempt 

 to show what elements composed the stock. It makes the Silver 



Wyandotte one of the numerous 

 types early developed in efforts 

 to fix a general-purpose type, 

 making some progress locally on 

 its merits and, after the success 

 of the Barred Rock had stimu- 

 lated breeders to new efforts, 

 taken up for the development of 

 the ideal of which it was then 

 only a suggestion. The favorite 

 type of the early Silver Wyan- 

 dottes was much darker than that 

 with which breeders are now 

 familiar. The modern exhibition 

 birds of this variety have the 

 color of the Silver Polish, but 

 with black tails. 



The Golden-Laced Wyandotte 

 was produced in Wisconsin by 

 crossing the silver-laced variety 



with a local breed known as the Winnebago, the origin of which is 

 unknown. 1 The color pattern is the same as in the silver-laced 



1 In " Wyandottes : Silver, Golden, Black, and White," by Joseph Wallace, 1891, 

 Joseph McKeen, of Omro, Wisconsin, is quoted as denying that the W T innebagos 

 had been bred a long time in Wisconsin, and claiming that he originated them. 

 McKeen places the beginning of his work with the Winnebagos " a few years 

 after " 1872 or 1873, ano ^ indicates that, at the time he crossed them with the Silver- 

 Laced Wyandottes, they were in a very crude condition. At about the time when 

 McKeen said that he was beginning to make the Winnebagos, the author, then a 

 boy in Galena, Illinois, bought, in the market of that town, two hens called Winne- 

 bagos, of a redder ground color than the early Golden Wyandottes, and as well laced 

 as the average Golden Wyandotte of fifteen to twenty years later. No doubt 

 McKeen owed much more to such Winnebagos than he was willing to admit. 



FIG. 410. White Wyandotte cock, 



owned by J. W. Andrews, Dighton, 



Massachusetts 



