THE ORPINGTONS 



31 



duced with absolutely sound black plumage having lus- 

 trous greenish black sheen on the surface, free from any 

 trace of purple barring, are just as scarce and as diffi- 

 cult to breed as an absolutely sound Buff Orpington. That 

 this color problem is a serious one, the following remarks 

 on "Mating for Color in Blacks," by E. Campbell in his 

 book "The Orpington and Its Varieties," London, Eng- 

 land, 1902, prove: 



"In Blacks there are tliree general faults to be guarded 

 against: — 



"Firstly, a dull brown feather which, however it has 

 been produced, is rightly condemned by every judge, no 

 matter how big the bird that carries it. It is possible to 

 use pullets of this sort if 

 they have sufficient merit in 

 size, type, and bone to war- 

 rant i*'; but since they re- 

 quire extra bright green 

 cockerels, with sound blue- 

 black under-color and fluff — 

 birds difficult to get — or in 

 more experimental breeder's 

 hands a red-hackled or sad- 

 dle-splashed cockerel, since 

 these invariably throw good 

 colored pullets, they are sel- 

 dom worth persevering with. 



"The next, and more 

 general fault, is a dull black 

 that seems to carry no sheen 

 on the pullets and to bring 

 a bronze lustre on the cock- 



purple dwindling away to 



erel's tail. A bird so handi- 

 capped must carry great size 

 and type to beat a better col- 

 ored bird. 



"The last — some would 

 put it first — is the objection- 

 able blue or purple Minorca 

 sheen with which some of 

 our best typed and biggest 

 birds have been exhibited. 

 This blue does not often ex- 

 tend beyond the back, breast, 

 and wing-bow but sometimes 

 it shows even in the tail cov- 

 erts and sickles. It is almost 

 as difficult to breed out as 

 the brown tinge, but al- 

 though it is equally contrary 

 to the Standard, I, and very 

 many others, do not (be- 

 cause it gives the birjj a 

 more_ brilliant appearance) 



class it so objectionable as the brown or lack lustre blacks. 

 "I am inclined to think that blueness is a result of too 

 much color, that is to say, of breeding too much for high 

 sheen. I think it arose and arises from using red-hackled 

 males in the breeding pens without discrimination. Why 

 I think it a result of excess in color is that I have noticed 

 a blue cockerel who runs out in a bright sun for some time, 

 loses much of the blue color where the sun has got at the 

 feathers, while underneath, and where the feathers have 

 overlapped, the blueness remains. Similarly, when such a 

 bird is well shaded the blue often loses its vividness in a 

 subdued purple — which is an excess of blue. The sun ap- 

 pears to draw out the blue to some extent, just as it 

 would extract the brightness of a buff or dim the most 

 vivid green. 



"A blue pullet — though not a cockerel — often moults 

 into a good green hen, but all the same, blue is a great 

 fault in color and is at times dift'icult to breed out. If you 

 examine a Black Orpington's feather, say from the wing- 

 bow, in a strong light, you will find that each feather con- 

 sists of traversing and alternating bars of yellowish, rich 

 purple, green and bronze green lustres. These vary in 

 vividness and intensity with the general color of the bird. 

 If the bird appears blue in plumage the purple bar will 

 dominate the others and often run down the shaft as well. 

 If the bird has a dull green color the bars are nearly equal 

 in strength, but their sheen is subdued.. If it has a real 

 satiny green sheen the green bar will dominate and the 



bronze green will be absent, the 

 a mere line. 



"It is by studying the various strengths of these bars 

 that I hold you can best improve the color of your birds. 

 The laws of color tell you that the infusion of red into 

 green and blue will turn green into blue and blue into 

 purple. I have never met anybody who has gone into this 

 matter or even noticed this peculiar barring in Blacks, and 

 I have gone into it here with an idea of showing that it 

 accounts for the difficulty one sometimes encounters in 

 improving color. It is obvious that the fact that these 

 sheens or lustres lie in distinct bars makes it necessary to 

 broaden or intensify the green bar only if we want good 

 color. Now, most black breeders know that the greenest 

 of pullets throw red-hackled or saddled cockerels, and are 

 thrown by them. That fact has led the indiscriminating 



breeder to assurrie that a red- 

 hackled cockerel is the 

 proper mating to secure the 

 highest green sheen. But, 

 as I have pointed out, the 

 excessive use of a bird of 

 this description usually ends 

 in a blue or purple c6ckerel 

 being evolved, and pullets 

 which lose their vivid green 

 to assume a purplish black. 



"The worst point about 

 the use of a red-splashed 

 cock is that the pullets very 

 seldom indicate it save in 

 their brilliant color, and, it 

 may be, in a narrow line of 

 feathers at the root of the 

 comb. As it is possible to 

 breed equally brilliant pul- 

 lets without using a red- 

 splashed bird, the unknow- 

 ing will purchase a hen of 

 this red cockerel character 

 only to find that the money 

 has been largely thrown 

 away, for the resulting cock- 

 erels seldom fail to show red 

 in hackle or saddle. 



"There are two ways of 

 getting rid of the objection- 

 able purple. One is to breed 

 back to the green, the other 

 to overpower the purple by 

 a sound satiny green which 

 has been secured by true 

 breeding and not infusions 

 of red. The most satisfac- 

 tory is the latter, but since 

 one must needs know the 

 antecedents of the stock 

 used, it is most difficult at times to adopt it. 



"To breed back I would simply procure a cock of the 

 preceding generation of the same strain and in which the 

 blue had not appeared. Failing this I would get a cockerel 

 on whose feather the purple and blue bars were as in- 

 distinct as possible, even tolerating a sad colored bird for 

 the sake of the correction, since the result would probably 

 be brighter colored chickens than the cock and better col- 

 ored ones than their mothers. 



"But the shortest road is undoubtedly through a deep 

 vivid satiny green cock, in whose feather no trace shows 

 of either blue, purple or red. The overpowering nature of 

 this bird's color is such that the yellow bar is narrowed 

 and the green widened until the blue is almost swamped 

 or pushed farther into the purple. 



"There is no use mating up blue and bronze birds or 

 blue and brown birds. These require that brilliant green 

 that I have just written of. To improve merely sad col- 

 ored birds you may use a red-hackled cockerel if you are 

 content to throw away all th resulting cockerels. It will 

 be cheaper at the start than mating up a good green bird, 

 but in the end it may not. If you have a good blue cock- 

 erel which you must go on with, give him green or dull 

 pullets." 



Economic Qualities of Black Orpingtons 



Professor Edward Brown in his latest Standard work, 

 "Races of Domestic Poultry,'' London, England, in re- 



F1R5T PRlXEBLftCK ORPTNHEM CHlGftGO DEC.1908 



BRED ftND OWNED BY 



GE-GREENWOOD LAKE MILLS WIS. 



