POULTRY CULTURE 



the idea that the blending of extremes will produce a mean, many have mated 

 these dark brown specimens to light buff or salmon birds. The usual result 

 is a mottling of the shades in the progeny. A light or dark bird may be used 

 to tone up or down in the progeny the color of a bird a few shades lighter 

 or darker than itself, but extreme matings always produce variegation. 



While standards for red fowls require or allow considerable black, the breeder 

 should always work away from black and endeavor to secure rich red through- 

 out, for the development of fanciers' ideals and of standards is always in the 



direction of uniformity of color 

 in a variety which has no pro- 

 nounced pattern in the plumage. 

 Mating black-white color types. 

 The black-white color types pre- 

 sent the same phenomena as the 

 black-red, with the red replaced 

 by white. Though red is con- 

 sidered a strong positive color, 

 and white merely absence of color, 

 the colors behave in just the 

 same way in the Dark Brahma 

 as in the Partridge Cochin, in 

 the Silver-Laced as in the Golden- 

 Laced Wyandotte, in the Silver- 

 Penciled as in the Golden-Penciled 

 Hamburg. In mating any of the 

 varieties with these color combi- 

 nations the breeder who finds it 

 difficult to get good specimens of 

 both sexes from the same mating 

 must carefully study his type, his 

 individual birds, their ancestry 

 and their progeny, and determine how far it is necessary to cater to sex tend- 

 encies by special matings to produce what standards require. 



Mating the gray, or blue, barred pattern. Barring in all sections of both 

 sexes is in appearance one of the simplest of color patterns. " Common look- 

 ing " is a phrase often applied to the finest Barred Plymouth Rocks by people 

 who do not know how difficult it is to produce fine finish in this pattern, and 

 do not appreciate the results. The pattern seems to have been comparatively 

 crude in all varieties in which it was found, until the keen competition of Barred 

 Plymouth Rock breeders brought it to a high state of perfection. The fancier's 

 attitude toward sexual differences in color in this variety is just the opposite of 

 his attitude toward such differences in pronounced black-red color types. In 

 the Brown Leghorn and varieties similar in color he cultivates the sexual tend- 

 ency to differences in color; in the Barred Plymouth Rock he cultivates the 

 opposing race tendency to similarity in color and markings. The result is 



FIG. 536. Typical American Dominique cock 



(Photograph from owner, A. Q. Carter, 



Freeport, Maine) 



