o 



§2 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



such a bird comes of a strain known to produce good pullets, of a pencilling similar in character to 

 those of the hens he is to be put with, it is sufficient. His tail should be perfectly black, and the 

 sickles likewise black, except the clear white edging, which on no account should be grey. The 

 bars on his wing should be perceptible, but slight, and not too plainly visible, though the wing- 

 coverts which form it must be darkly pencilled on their upper webs. If there be too little colour 

 here the pullets will lack colour also ; and if, on the contrary, the bar be too dark, the pencilling 

 will most likely be coarse, heavy, and spotty." 



Our impression is that the majority of Silver-pencilled Hamburgh breeders breed their 

 cockerels from different pens to their pullets. For cockerels they match a good show-bird with 

 hens much too light in the pencilling to be fit for the pen, tolerably marked, but the marking not 

 heavy enough ; while, on the other hand, they will often mate with their best hens cocks or 

 cockerels with perfectly black tails, and with black about the body. The disadvantage of such 

 a plan is, that neither strain thus produced can be relied upon to breed in any other way, and 

 many of the pullets hatched, even if they do not show the approach to black spangling already 

 referred to, are apt to present a coarse appearance, from the markings being too broad and heavy 

 which the best breeders have been doing all they can to banish. On the other hand, a cock from 

 a reliable strain, with properly laced sickles, slightly perceptible bars which show good dark 

 pencilling underneath on examination, and plenty of black in the secondary feathers, will breed 

 pullets all that can be desired, as well as reproducing his own likeness in the cockerels. 



First-rate Silver-pencilled cocks will sometimes, as they get old, show a chestnut patch upon the 

 wino'. We remember one of the very best show birds we ever saw moulting out thus after winning 

 thirty-seven prizes, and the fault used to be common in aged birds ; but by rigorously excluding 

 such from breeding, it is now seldom seen. Birds which do show the chestnut patch should never 

 be bred from. 



GOLDEN-PENCILLED HAMBURGHS.— " This variety," continues Mr. Beldon, "is in 

 every respect save ground-colour similar to the Silver-pencilled breed. The ground-colour in the 

 hens should be about the colour of gold, as rich and bright as possible ; the pencilling being 

 exactly like the preceding variety, as distinct and yet as fine as can be got ; that is, as many bars 

 as possible across each feather, provided they are distinct and of a good rich black colour. The 

 neck-hackle, like the Silver birds', should be clear. The cock is of a deeper tint, his colour being 

 somewhat between that of his own hens and of a Red Game cock ; it must be neither too red nor 

 too pale, but what might be called very rich in effect. His proper tail-feathers are black, the 

 sickles and hangers rich black edged with brown or bronze, the edging being rather wider than in 

 the Silver-pencilled bird. To have sickles all black is a great fault, and so is a tail bronzed all over, 

 or with scarcely any black in it, but^ bronzed almost all over the sickles. This last kind of tail is 

 very showy, and used to be rather a favourite with some judges who did not understand 

 Hamburghs ; but experience proves that birds possessing it produce very indifferently pencilled 

 pullets, and the judges on that account now throw them out. 



" Besides the quality of the black pencilling, which resembles the Silver-pencilled, one of the 

 great points in this variety is the evenness and richness of the ground-colour. Some birds, 

 otherwise good, are very uneven in this point, the ends of the feathers being a lighter gold than the 

 other parts. Such birds, as the season advances, are apt to get still more faded and washed-out in 

 appearance, and, indeed, most birds fade in colour from the effects of the sun ; but some hens of a 

 good rich colour retain this much better than others, which, is of course, a great point in their 

 favour. In the cocks the same fault is commonly seen, appearing in the shape of a lighter shade 



