POULTRY CULTURE 



while to develop it that way, but as the natural tendency is to darker color on 

 the surface than in undercolor, the result was to increase the black in the 

 surface color and make the birds too dark. Strong barring in undercolor is 

 still a fad with many breeders. Others require only that the bars be quite 

 distinct for the greater part of the length of the feather, and apparent, though 

 not sharply defined, down to the skin. If barring in undercolor is neglected 

 in selecting breeders, surface bars soon become indistinct, and white appears 

 in considerable amounts in the tail and neck. 



In white fowls the undercolor is often the most reliable index of the quality 

 of surface color. Exposure to rain and sun may burn or stain the surface of a 

 good white bird so that it will look like a poor one. If the bird is white, the 

 undercolor, and especially the quills, will be free from yellow in ripe plumage. 



In a very literal sense, undercolor in all birds with strong color is reserve 

 color. Unless intensified by mating and mixture with a color as strong as or 

 stronger than itself, the tendency in all plumage colors is to grow weaker. 

 There is also a tendency for color, if present, to come to the surface. If all the 

 color is at the surface, as it is in some buff and gray birds, a very slight loss 

 of color will cause marked deterioration in surface color. 



Color selection of Rouen Ducks. The Rouen Duck is the only variety of 

 poultry, other than fowls, requiring special discussion of color. In all others 

 single Standard matings are the rule. In the Rouen Duck, as in the black-red 

 color type in fowls, the colors of the wild bird are intensified in domestication, 

 and sex differences in color are developed. Were the variety bred more exten- 

 sively for exhibition, the double-mating system would probably be used regu- 

 larly. As it is, it is used to some extent, and when special separate matings are 

 not used to produce exhibition birds of the different sexes, intermediate matings 

 are used. 



The American Standard Rouen drake is a light-colored Rouen drake, the 

 Standard Rouen duck a dark-colored Rouen duck. The Standard duck is quite 

 similar to the Partridge Cochin hen in color and pattern, not so rich in color 

 or so well and uniformly marked, but still strongly suggestive of this Cochin 

 variety. The drake which matches this duck in breeding is very dark and 

 without the white ring around the neck so conspicuous in the exhibition drake. 

 The duck which in breeding matches the Standard drake is very much lighter 

 in color than the Standard duck, indistinctly penciled, and has a white ring 

 indicated around the neck. When only one pen is bred it is usual to mate a 

 medium male with females of both types. This gives a proportion of good 

 Standard birds of both sexes, but not so many as when typical drakes are 

 used in separate matings. 



