SUCCESS "WITH POULTRY 



15 



of white marble. The hock should be clean CTit, showing 

 clearly' in profile with no suggestion of vulture hook, and 

 the shank should be well feathered, and I like to see both 

 outer and middle toes feathered to the nails. 



The colors in this variety are milk-white and jet black, 

 that is, the colors we desire to obtain are such, but we often 

 fail in getting just what we want, for the white may, and, if 

 skin and legs are a rich yellow, must have more or less ten- 

 dency to yellow, and the black is either too abundant or too 

 scarce and is sometimes smoky, almost brown. But when we 

 get just what we wish in colors, and get them in the proper 

 proportions and rightly distributed, we have a most beauti- 

 ^ful combinaion, and on a large, well-shaped bird a combina- 

 tion displayed so as to provoke admiration from almost 

 every person. 



The best colored pullets, and to some extent, though 



standard-bred Ijight Bralmias. 



leas so than with the pullets, the best colored cockerels, will 

 show black in the web of the feathers of the back. These 

 are the pullets and cockerels, however, that as hens and 

 cocks, do the winning, and are the ones that the winners are 

 bred from. To get them ready to show in the chicken classes 

 these dark feathers should be plucked out six or eight weeks 

 before the exhibition, . so as to give 'time for new ones to 

 grow. They will almost always come of the desired color; 

 But if one does not care to do this, all he has to do is to let 

 them alone, and when they .molt they will be replaced by 

 nice wihite feathers. The chickens that are white in the back 

 are almost alawys faded in wings and tail and deficient in 

 hackle when they are fowls, but these black-backed birds 

 have the dTesired strongly colored wings, tails and hackles. 



In mating for color it is indispensable that at least one 

 of the sexes should 'have dark undercolor. In on other way 

 can one hope to keep up the color in the flights, tails and 

 hackles. If both sexes have dark undercolor good black will 

 be obtained with a decided chance of having too much of 



it in the chickens, yet, if both sexes are young birds when 

 mated, I believe in dark undercolor on both sides. But 

 young birds on both sides do not make the ideal mating for 

 me. I like to have hens eighteen months to thirty months 

 old, which, as pullets, had too much black in the back, but 

 as hens have clear, white backs, with white undercolor, but 

 good, black flights and tails and well penciled hackles. For 

 such hens select a big-boned cockerel, having a well formed 

 tail, with almost solid black flights, brilliant Wack in tail and 

 the hackles striped well up toward his head. From this mat- 

 ing will come such chickens as will delight a Light Brahma 

 fancier's heart. 



If one must use pullets and he has a two-year-old coek, 

 it will be best to put them together. If these pullets have 

 dark undercolor, intensely black flights and tail, and a 

 hackle that is heavily penciled, the coek can be white in 

 undercolor and have a narrow stripe in 

 the hackle, but where he is black it is 

 desirable tnat the black should be brilliant 

 ^ in color. This is a good mating, but not 

 quite equal to the previous one. 



The secret of mating Light Brahmas 

 is to secure dark undersolor in one sex. 

 Benciled coverts add much to the beau- 

 ty of a Light Brahma's tail, and in all 

 matings it is well to select breeders hav- 

 ng ths feature well developed, but suoh 

 coverts should not be selected at the ex- 

 pense of the hackles and the desired 

 black in flights and tails. 



In mating for shape, I like to have 

 the birds, especially the hens, rather short 

 in leg and with a true Brahma back. 1 

 do not like to see much tendency to 

 cushion in the back, though a bird fine 

 in other respects should not . be rejected 

 because of this tendency. No better de- 

 scription of the male's back has ever been 

 given tnan the following: The back should 

 curve so that the outlines of a, Brahma 

 egg, big end at the base of the hackle, 

 would' just fit in it. This gives a graceful 

 curve to the neck and that fine upward 

 sweep to the saddle that makes a true 

 Brahma back for a male bird. The male 

 to head the breeding pen should have just 

 such a back, and if he is mated to very 

 short-legged hens he may have a moderately long shank, but 

 should not reach the old-fashioned Shanghai type. It is 

 always to be remembered that you cannot get style on a 

 bird unless you have some daylight beneath him. While . 

 we do not wish to breed our Brahmas to the old Shanghai 

 type, ■ with tne remarkably long legs and neck, neither do 

 we wish to transform them into creepers. What we want 

 is just enough shank to give us style and not a particle 

 more. To secure this in our matings we' select the short- 

 legged type of females and trust ot the male to add just 

 enough in shank to preserve the true and graceful Amer- 

 ican type.. 



The tail has been spoken of as well-formed. By this 

 is meant that the two sides meeting at the top spread out 

 laterally so as to form something like the sides of a capital 

 A, or a capital V inverted. Occasionally a Brahma will be 

 found with a pointed tail, a suggestion of the desired s^ape 

 in the Game, but the well-spread tail is what is wanted in 



