123 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



"prize birds" at a high price, and takes his very poor chance of wliat may be produced. The 

 object is not only to get birds which apparently possess the desired qualities, but to learn what we 

 may call their course of breeding, and what particular tendencies they are most apt to develop ; for 

 every strain has its own, and these require to be studied and allowed for. When birds have to be 

 purchased at shows, the breeding should in a similar way be ascertained as far back as possible ; 

 and no real amateur will ever refuse to give any such information which lies in his power. 



The same truth will be a guide in another case, which continually occurs in selecting stock. 

 To perceive that two birds possessing the same defect must never be mated, for fear of aggravating 

 the fault, and to reject bad birds in favour of good ones— all this is simple enough ; but when the 

 necessity comes, as it often will, of choosing between different faults, one of wliicla must be tolerated 

 in next year's stock bird, the difficulty of the novice in breeding begins, and he too often judges 

 wrongly. But what we have learnt furnishes us with the safe rule, of always preferring a fault 

 which appears accidental or unusual in the strain, if not too glaring (in which case any bird should 

 be of course condemned) to even a lesser defect which seems as if it were hereditary or common to 

 it ; and here again comes the advantage of having either bred your own birds, or acquired 

 almost as much knowledge of their history as if you had. For instance — we will again take Buff 

 Cochins for illustration — suppose it is found necessary to breed from one or the other of two birds, 

 eligible in almost every respect, but one of which has a slight suspicion of white in the tail, while 

 the other is free from that fault, but is greatly deficient in leg- feathering. A beginner would almost 

 infallibly reason in this way : that the fault in the first bird being but slight, so slight in fact that he 

 might be perfectly fit for exhibition, it was far better to choose him than one with so serious a fault 

 as want of feather. But the experienced breeder would pause, at least, before he came to any 

 such conclusion. It may be, from his personal knowledge if he bred the birds, or from diligent 

 investigation if he did not, he finds the strain has a distinct icndcney to the white tail, which has 

 only as yet been partially overcome, and needs yet more care to banish it altogether ; whilst on the 

 other hand profuse feathering is almost universal, and in particular had remarkably distinguished 

 both parents of the bird which is wanting in this respect. He would see then that there was no 

 tendency to failure in that particular, and he would rather therefore put up with such a deficiency, 

 which probably would appear in very few of the progeny, in order to do a year's work towards 

 banishing the fault to which there was the hereditary predisposition. 



Passing now to more plainly practical considerations, we would lay emphatic stress on the 

 importance of preserving the utmost purity of breed by preventing all untoward alliances. Among 

 many breeders, especially American, it is the custom to let all the chickens run about indis- 

 criminately until a few weeks before they are wanted for breeding, and it is assumed that a week 

 or two's separation will destroy all evil effect, and ensure purity of produce. This is not the case. 

 The effect of 2. first union especially is often traceable in some degree through the zvliole ///"^ of that 

 hen, particularly if the cock with whom the mesalliance was contracted presented any strongly 

 conspicuous character ; and even subsequent casual unions are often productive of more or less 

 permanent ill effects. This has often been doubted, but we have met with so many instances of it 

 that any question of its reality long since became impossible, and we would never on any account 

 allow a male bird of any strange breed to enter even for a day in winter a yard of hens which we 

 greatly valued. Many breeders are far too lax in this respect, and hence eggs from their yards on 

 rare occasions present " phenomena " which would surprise no one more than themselves. 



Very nearly related to this subject is that of the duration of the cock's influence over hens with 

 which he has been mated ; and, indeed, it is difficult to give any illustrative facts which do not 

 trench upon both. No question is of more practical importance to the breeder ; but it is only 



