Persistency of ''Blood" jn Games. 281 



cllffcrcncc? liave been greatly exaggerated. For instance, when it is stated that the present weights 

 are greater than the average of the old birds, it is forgotten that these were always reduced in 

 weight by abstinence and training. In general, it may be said that the old style of bird was more 

 clumsy and stout in make, with thicker bones and rather shorter neck, and tail somewhat more 

 upright and spreading. As regards appearance, the change is certainly for the better, and it is the 

 opinion of many of the best judges that nothing has been lost in other points ; indeed, as many of 

 the most successful exhibitors are even yet, "on the sly," enthusiastic fighters, they could not fail 

 to detect any falling off in the old sturdy qualities of their fowls. It is true evident traces of the 

 Malay cross are sometimes seen (it is best detected by the heavy eyebrows), but its supposed 

 prevalence has been much exaggerated, and there is no want of birds whose purity and "gameness" 

 of blood is as undeniable as their beauty in the show-pen. 



For our notes on the breeding and exhibition of the modern Game fowl, we are indebted 

 to the kindness of Mr. John Douglas, Clumber, Worksop, Notts, than whom there is perhaps no 

 higher authority; combining as he does a full knowledge of both the old and modern Game fowl, 

 and having bred, both for the Duke of Newcastle and on his own account, many of the very best 

 winning birds. It will be seen that he entirely agrees with our opinion as to the comparative 

 merits of the modern fowl just expressed ; and all fanciers will feel indebted to him for the full 

 and precise instructions, the first which have ever appeared in print, respecting the breeding of 

 this noble bird to exhibition standards. 



" Having been asked by many breeders of Game, as well as by the author, to write more fully 

 for this work than has yet been done on the different varieties of Game, and the breeding of them 

 from an exhibition point of view, I will give my own experience as fully as I can. 



" Poultry-breeding has for years become a science in which calculations have been made and 

 theories propounded, which practical experience of over thirty years has proved to be correct. 

 The law that 'like produces like' is only true if the birds are of pure and known blood, and this 

 is the great secret in breeding. For colour we chiefly look to the hen in Game, and to the cock 

 for style and symmetry ; but the most wonderful point is the suddenness with which any change 

 of cocks in a run will change the blood and apparently reverse this rule. I have proved this by 

 setting the foJrth egg after change, having put a Brown-red to Black-red hens, taking away 

 the same evening the Black-red cock. The fourth egg produced a splendidly coloured Brown-red 

 cockerel ; and wonderful to say, from one hen of pure £/trcl'-red blood I thus obtained nine 

 Brown-reds, and not one Black-red. Nevertheless, the rule will generally hold good, of depending 

 on the hen for colour. The self-same hen two years before, when a pullet, was left without a 

 mate after the first two eggs were laid, and every egg of the batch produced a good Black-red. 

 This is the mystery, how suddenly the influence of one cock seems destroyed by the introduc- 

 tion of another in the run ; and there is no way of proving this so well as breeding the different 

 colours in Game. 



" As an instance of how birds with any admixture of blood will retain it and ' throw back,' 

 even after twenty years have passed, I may mention the following : — A short, very hard-feathered 

 Spangled cock having been put to a Black-red hen, a cockerel from this cross, put to the mother, 

 threw some of the finest Black-reds ever seen in England. A cockerel from this cross, put to the 

 hens from the first cross, gave a second family, which were bred backwards and forwards as 

 required, and kept the colour well for twelve years. At the end of this time a cockerel and pullets 

 being mated of the same hatch, produced a fezv Spangles, which were shown and won the first prize 

 in the 'Any Variety' class of Game, at Birmingham. Again, nine years later, by putting together 

 a cockerel and pullets from the same hatch, and from the same blood, I had a still greater number of 

 36 



