THE ASIATICS. 



•27 



THE TAIL 



The tail should be fairly well developed and carried 

 tolerably upright and spread latterly like a capital A, which 

 should be filled in underneath with rich, curling feathers 

 of mixed black and white color, the darker the better. A 

 line dropped from the deck feathers to the ground should 

 just clear the tip of the lower tail feathers. The 

 sickles and lesser sickles should reach but little 

 beyond the tail proper and should curve outward 

 laterally. The larger coverts should lay in form of 

 a simitar on the side of the tail and reach far enough 

 to the rear to just cover the tail proper. The sickles, lesser 

 sickles and tail proper are to all appearances black, but the 

 quill end next to the skin and along the lower web of the 

 lower tail feathers may be white and on the very lowest 

 feather the white may extend two inches. The lesser cov- 

 erts in the male may be black, or black edged with white. 



In the female the tail proper extends beyond the tail 

 coverts and to all appearances the feathers are black; except 

 the two deck feathers, which are edged with white, but the 

 quill ends for one-half to two inches along the web of the 

 lower feathers are white. While the tail is called fan- 

 shaped, it must not be exaggerated, but it is a fault if it 

 comes to a point like the Cochin tail. It should be filled 

 underneath with rich, curling white feathers which may be 

 mixed with black and not be considered a defect. The cov- 

 erts may be black, or edged with white. When the last row 

 of the cushion feathers are black laced with white, the 

 larger rear coverts may be black. 



We have said that when shell bone is crooked by a fall- 

 ing hip joint, the tail becomes wry, that is, carried out of 

 a straight line from neck, this becomes a disqualification. 

 It is really no fault of the tail proper, it being only the result 

 of a deformed back. If the carriage of the sickles is too 

 straight and the tail proper is not spread laterally into what 

 some term fan-shape, in other words, viewed from behind, 

 the space between the sides is not A-shaped, cut one and 

 one-half points for either of these defects. 



But color cuts a large figure here, as it does in 

 wings. If an inch of white appears in sickles above the 

 coverts, cut one point; if more, cut to two, as the length of 

 white increases. White appearing in large coverts, with les- 

 ser coverts in characters like feather No. 17 should be cut 

 a full point. When this is the case the third set of coverts 

 next to the saddle will be nearly white. 



Here is where the judge or novice has a work to 

 do. Lift the saddle entirely off the tail and you will see 

 every tail has three sets of coverts; the large ones that lie 

 upon the tail proper and curve downward are to be black; 

 the other two sets, black laced with white. When the saddle 

 is wholly white, the second and third set do not show on the 

 surface, yet our model shows what looks like two sets, 

 showing the second set laced with white. This is only a 

 case where the last row of saddle plumage has taken on the 

 character of tail coverts and is not rated as a defect 

 in back, as it has added brevity to tail the same as if the sec- 

 ond set of tail coverts showed. No female ever showed 

 the second set of the real tail coverts unless she had been 

 faked of her last row of saddle feathers. The judge who 

 knows his business will uncover the tail to judge of its cov- 

 erts. The specimen that shows this last row of saddle plum- 

 age black laced with white, will have tail coverts wholly 

 black, without the white lacing. When the tail feathers 

 proper are tipped with white like our illustration, Fig. 18, 

 cut one full point, or if the defect is less pronounced, cut 

 one-half point. 



Fig. 18 is one of the lowest tail feathers. Note the 



white near the quill point. This is the normal condition of 

 all tails and is not a- defect, for all feathers of tail and cov- 

 erts, when full grown, are white at the quill points. The 

 defective conditions are at the tip of the feathers. To decide 

 on the amount of white at the base I examine the white 

 in the tips, that being the sign of the evil and generally of 

 its extent. White in sickles and coverts will sometimes 

 appear in an alarming degree in old birds, sufficient indeed 

 to cause a cut of one to three points, but if more than two, 

 surely the specimen should be passed as unworthy. 



If the tail is drooping or carried above 45 degrees; if 

 the black is devoid of the desirable green sheen, cut one-half 

 to one and one-half points. If the tail is carried to either 

 side sufficiently to be termed a wry tail, the specimen must 

 be disqualified and refused a score card. 



Wing; Feathers of the Female. 

 LEGS AND FEET 



The thighs should be medium in length, showing the 

 hock in profile below the body line. The lower thigh should 

 be well and firmly muscled and covered with close, clinging 

 plumage that curls about the hock joint preserving its dis- 

 tinct outline. The shanks should be medium in length, 

 looking neither short nor long and should be well feathered 

 down the outside, the feathering blending with the foot 

 plumage in a smooth, outward curve. The toes should be 

 straight, the outer being feathered to the tip joint and the 

 middle toe bearing feathers enough to fill the space between 

 it and the outer toe. The shanks and feet should be yellow, 

 but they may be straw color as the birds grow older. In 

 the female the hock joint is less prominent than in the male 

 and the shank and foot feathering is not so heavy. The 

 feathers may be mottled with black in the male, or may be 

 white in the female. 



Occasionally we find a case of complete knock-knees. 

 Such specimens are disqualified. When they diverge from the 

 perfect, as seen in our model, to this condition the cuts 

 range from one-half to two points. If the shanks are lightly 

 feathered and the feathering does not grow to tip joint of 

 outer toes, then the specimen is disqualified. If toes are, 



