HiXTS ON Breeding Crest. 



129 



being too narrow in front and too square behind, with the objectionable corners described in our 

 hst of forms to be avoided. Fig. 44 represents a decent crest spoiled by a dark patch at the back 

 of the neck, in which the crest-feathers merge and lose their outline : there is nothing to complain 

 of in the way of shape, but a clear body is not in any respect improved by such a mark. 



We give no credence to vague assertions that the produce of two Crests will be more or less 

 bald on the pate, sometimes even to complete nudity. We never found such a thing happen in our 

 own breeding experience, nor have we, in response to inquiries most carefully instituted, ever 

 succeeded in finding either such a specimen or any person who could afford reliable information as 

 to such a thing having occurred. We have bred Plainheads often enough from two Crests — a thing 

 easily accounted for on the hypothesis that the recognised form of crest has much of the Plainhead 

 element in it, and we have seen more or less disturbance of the usual type, but never anything 



Fig. 39- 



Fig. 40. 



fig- 4 



f mm 



Fig. 42. 



Fig. 44- 



remotely approaching baldness — in fact, always the reverse. And further, among the thousands 

 of crests we have seen in our day, good, bad, and indifferent — and many very indifferent — of all 

 conceivable styles, and bred, doubtless, in all sorts of ways, from Crest and Plainhead, and, for 

 want of better knowledge, frequently enough from repeated successions of double Crests, we do not 

 remember ever seeing a head so bald as to lead us for a moment to infer that it arose from any 

 such method of pairing as we refer to. This belief, which has gained considerable credence, we 

 are fully satisfied is a complete myth; and we unhesitatingly affirm that to pair two Crests is a sure 

 way to obtain, not baldness, but excess of feather, which can afterwards be regulated and brought 

 into shape. 



We are dealing now only with general principles, and say, as a second thing to be obsei-ved, 

 that whereas, in breeding Plainheads, two Yellows are sometimes paired to obtain colour even at a 

 probable sacrifice of feather, so, in breeding crest, double Buffs are paired to get feather at the 

 expense of colour, and the latter practice is by no means as exceptional as the former. It is next 

 to impossible to breed a heavy crest from a thinly-feathered bird, and the nature of the work to 

 be accomplished will therefore suggest a reason for frequent departure from the line of procedure 

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