THE ASIATICS. 



89 



then of my astonishment the other day 

 on picking her up to And one wing full 

 of white fea tiers. I suppose some one 

 will say that this is the result of old 

 age. But, listen. I have also frequent- 

 ly had an experience like the follow- 

 ing: A pullet would score well, show- 

 ing no white feathers, and at the next 

 molt would bob up with enough white 

 feathers to disqualify. White feathers 

 may also appear in places where the 

 skin has been torn or otherwise in- 

 jured. I have a friend who breeds 

 Black Minorcas, and he has had the 

 same experience. He says he often 

 finds hens with white feathers enough 

 to disqualify, which passed all right as 

 pullets. No doubt breeders of other 

 black fowls could recount instances of 

 a similar character. Of course I have 

 always discarded specimens which 

 showed enough white feathers to dis- 

 qualify, so have had no experience 

 which would enable me to determine 

 whether the converse of the above is 

 true, viz.: That birds having white 

 feathers would be likely, at the next 

 molt, to replace them with clear, black 

 feathers, but I believe that it is likely 

 to occur, and I mean to test it in the 

 near future. Black and white seem to 

 be very closely correlated, and if the 

 theory I have developed from my ob- 

 servations thus far is correct, the 

 white in the plumage of a black fowl 

 is a variable quantity, liable to become 

 either mors or less abundant at each 

 succeeding molt. Your disqualified 

 fowl of this season may become your 

 prize winner of next season, and vice 

 versa. This, too, without any feather 

 P«Hing. ! ; |]j ;jj 



Perhaps we Langshan breeders 

 have made a mistake in discarding all 

 specimens showing white in plumage. 

 Perhaps it would be a still greater 

 mistake to make the disqualifications in 

 tion any more stringent than they are 

 I think it will be found very often that 

 Showing a few white tips will have more 



"Big Bug," a Black I,ang5han Cockerel, Winning: at Two Shows. Weight Eleven Pounds. 

 Bred by Dare & Thurston. 



this direc- 

 at present, 

 a specimen 

 of the de- 

 sired green sheen and less of the purple than those speci- 

 mens which are strictly free from white. These questions 

 are all worthy of more careful thought and study on the 

 pari of Black Langshan breeders, and if many will unite in 

 the effort, their united testimony would soon establish a 

 rule which would be far superior to any man's opinion as a 

 safe guide to follow in breeding. Personally, I should still 

 hesitate to breed from a bird having white feathers, but I 

 feel safe in predicting that with increasing study, this fault 

 will be considered less of a disqualification than it is at- 

 present. 



The question of white in feathers is not so serious as 

 purple barring. At times the green sheen seems to be de- 

 cidedly elusive. When the careful breeder thinks he has 

 the purple almost eliminated, it crops out in the most unex- 

 pected place. It is almost certain that it is a case of atav- 

 ism, aggravated in some instances by lice, improper food, 

 and lack of shade and pure water, and it is equally certain 



that the utmost care in breeding will not entirely prevent 

 it, although encouraging progress has been made. A prom- 

 inent judge told me not long since, that a friend of his 

 who has long been a breeder of Langshans, had the finest 

 colored birds one season that he ever saw. He thought he 

 had the color question forever settled. The next year he 

 mated his yards with the best of his green birds, confidently 

 expecting the best birds he ever raised, but to his astonish- 

 ment and intense disgust, the purple barring was as much 

 in evidence as ever. The same judge said that some breed- 

 ers believed that mating a finely colored male bird to a 

 dull or dead black female, would produce the finest green 

 specimens. I give the opinion for what it is worth, not hav- 

 ing had an opportunity yet to test it. I have been inclined 

 to believe that a little white in plumage was accompanied 

 by a more brilliant green sheen, 'having seen a number of 

 specimens in which this was the case, and yet I know that 

 it is not always so. I do know, positively, that white will 

 often appear after a molt in a specimen which before was 

 free from it, and I am persuaded that the reverse is often 

 the case. This subject is worthy of all the study that Lang- 

 shan breeders can give it. 



