Various Results of Crossing. 151 



them to produce the same as the previous pair with probably lighter marking ; we would also 

 pair a Green-marked Crested bird with a Clear Norwich hen, and a Green-marked Plainhead 

 with a Crested Norwich hen, and look for similar results, with the addition of more Green- 

 marked and pink-eyed Clears, in all of which we should expect to find increased depth of colour. 

 So far we have worked only with the produce of the pairs put up for crest-breeding, but in any 

 room in which the breeding of colour-Cinnamons has been carried on there will be Plainhead 

 cocks and hens in every stage of development, both Buff and Yellow, with which suitable 

 mating can be effected when once the crest has been introduced and developed in the cinnamon 

 form. 



We need not pursue this further. There are many forms in which the results of crossing in the 

 way we have endeavoured to explain will show themselves, to which we think it unnecessary to 

 refer. The presence of any such form will at once suggest to the breeder a method of dealing 

 with it in accordance with the laws which regulate Cinnamon-breeding, and the law of common 

 sense which directs all breeding operations, apart from special considerations arising from peculiar 

 conditions. There is one feature, however, to which we must refer before dismissing the Cinnamon. 

 What is to be done with the house full of Green birds, the produce of the Norwich cock and 

 Cinnamon hens, to which we directed attention at an early part of this chapter } Are they useless 

 for the purpose of Cinnamon-breeding .' On the contrary, they are very valuable ; but when we 

 left them there was nothing in the breeding-room with which they could be mated with such effect 

 as with some of the birds resulting from the combinations we have suggested. But bearing in 

 mind that Cinnamon blood infused from the male side will assert itself in any cross, it will be 

 evident that if the hens, at least, of this batch of Greens, which now contains an addition of strong 

 Norwich blood, be paired with the original Cinnamons, the result will be an improved edition of the 

 bird, deeper in colour and richer in tone, but not so rich and bright as when obtained in the other 

 way. In the same manner, if it be thought advisable, for the sake of some exceptionally superior 

 crest formation, to import that feature through a Norwich cock, it can be done in that way, 

 although the direct result will be, not Crested Cinnamons, but Crested Greens, which can, in the 

 next generation, be made Cinnamon by mating with pure Cinnamon cocks. Birds of singular 

 beauty, however, can be obtained from these Plainhead and Crested Greens, by mating with pink- 

 eyed Clear Yellow or with Variegated Yellow Cinnamon cocks— a plan which must be adopted in 

 the case of the Crested birds if it be desired to breed Variegated or Marked Crested Cinnamons, 

 because the mating of a Self-coloured Crested Green with a pure Cinnamon would produce Self- 

 coloured Crested Cinnamons, though, from the fact of the Green being full of Norwich blood, there 

 might be a few irregular sports. Self-coloured Crested Cinnamons can be more readily obtained 

 in this way, than by following up heavy variegation till light feathers be all eliminated and a 

 perfect self-colour result^ though the latter process might produce the more brilliant bird. 



We now append Scales for expressing, in a tangible form, the relative values of the principal 

 features. Being so nearly allied to the Norwich, the values of corresponding properties are almost 

 identical, though we have the points given to the white underflue, and to the beak, legs, and feet of 

 the Norwich at our disposal for distribution elsewhere. We introduce the element of richness or 

 warmth of tone more discernible in some of its shades than in the, by comparison, more uni- 

 coloured Norwich. We also use the expression "transparent brilliancy," noticeable principally on 

 the breast — an effect we cannot describe in words any more than we can an atmospheric effect in a 

 neutral-tinted background, though we recognise its presence when we see it. We also add extra 

 points for size, subject to the explanations given in our notes on that feature. 



