2 56 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



thighs and fluff either black, or black very slightly ticked or laced with white. The shank- 

 feathering should correspond with the breast, being black if the latter is, and slightly mottled with 

 white if not. The proper colour for the shanks is deep yellow, inclining to orange ; but this can 

 rarely be obtained except on a grass-run ; and many Brahmas being reared in confinement, if the 

 leg be moderately yellow it is sufficient. 



The colour of the hen somewhat varies, according to the taste of each individual fancier. Mr. 

 Boyle, for some years a very successful exhibitor, describes it in "The Practical Poultry Keeper' 

 as a " dingy white ground, very much and closely pencilled with dark steel-grey." The eftect of 

 this is very beautiful, giving the appearance of a frosted or silver-grey ; but there should be no 

 appearance of pure white in the plumage except in the margins of the neck-hackles. Pullets of 

 this colour are in perfection at about six to eight months old, but next season often acquire a very 

 dingy tone which we much dislike. The hens also are of a dingy colour except for a month or two 

 after moulting; but we have bred a few birds of this colour which retained their clearness of tint 

 to the last, proving that with care in breeding the objectionable dingy tone might be got rid of. 

 A more serious fault is that this colour is very apt to breed pullets with necks almost white for 

 some distance down ; and even below that very thin and uncertain in colour. These light-necked 

 birds generally breed worse and worse ; but the e\il can easily be checked by choosing birds for 

 breeding whose heads are distinctly marked. 



A few years since some breeders, amongst whom were Mr. Lacy, preferred a decided brown 

 colour for the hens ; a tint which breeds true with much less trouble than the clear. This tint 

 is occasionally shown with success, but being in the opinion of most fanciers much inferior in 

 beauty to the clear colour, has nearly if not quite gone out of fashion, and it has lately become an 

 accepted axiom that a clear ground-colour is the proper one for a Brahma. 



Another colour is that which used to be shown by Mr. Teebay, and is generally much 

 admired when seen in perfection, as it sometimes has been again of late years. The ground-colour 

 in this case is itself a steel-grey, and the pencillings or markings a rich black, so intense as to show 

 green reflections liice the tails of the cocks. Sometimes there is a slight cast of chestnut in the 

 ground, but the intense colour of the pencilling prevents this from looking the least dingy, even 

 when the birds moult out as hens. The ground then often shows the chestnut tone, with a slight 

 purple cast, but the birds look wonderfully rich even then. Other shades of marking also occur; 

 and on the whole what we prefer is a variety of the first or silver-grey colour, in which the grey 

 of the ground is of a perceptible bluish cast, and the pencilling itself so dark as to be nearly 

 , black. This colour, which may be denominated the blue-grey, usually moults out tolerably clear, 

 the bright blue only giving place to a slightly duller slaty cast, which makes the hens of this 

 colour show better than any, unless the very dark pencilling may be an exception. 



The shape and character of the marking in Dark Brahma pullets also varies. In some birds 

 the pattern is very thick and large, in others so small as to be barely distinguishable. We prefer 

 a medium size, so that the pencillings can be clearly discerned at a distance of about twelve 

 feet. The shape of marking, likewise, is found to differ, sometimes being nearly straight across 

 the feather, as in pencilled Hamburghs, and in other cases being curved like a series of lacings. 

 A medium character looks best here too, in our own opinion ; and we append, by way of illustra- 

 tion, a series of feathers from one of the best birds we ever saw, and one which was never 

 shown without Vv'inning. She was of the blue-grey colour we have already spoken of, and the 

 feathers were plucked at the age of twenty months. (Fig. 65.) 



A few American fanciers seem greatly to admire a feather for Dark Brahma pullets which, 

 besides the regular pencilling, has a defined edge of dull white, considerably lighter than the rest of 



