10 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



should be discounted. The black band referred to near the 

 end of the feather should be a rich metallic black and the 

 white a pure white. On a well bred specimen the two colors 

 are so pure and distinct as to give them the appearance of 

 ebony and alabaster joined together on straight lines, in 

 fact, it is doubtful if there is a fowl in existence, either 

 tame or wild, where the two colors, white and black, show 

 so distinctly and with so beautiful an effect as on the tail 

 and tail coverts of well bred Bronze turkey males. 



The standard says, in describing the coverts, "Coverts 

 black or dark brown, each feather irregularly penciled with 

 a narrow band of light brown, ending in a wide black and 

 bronze band extending across the feather with a wide edging 

 of white or gray, white preferred." The more distinct the 

 color throughout the whole plumage, the better. Here again 

 our advice to the amateur is, drop the word gray and strive 

 to produce the pure white edging, which is the seal of beauty 

 of the breed and which, with careful selection of the breed- 

 ing stock, can be obtained in a large percentage of the off- 

 spring. 



In chart (Pig. 1) you will note that the color of the cov- 

 erts shows black. The end color of the tail proper is hidden 

 by the coverts, but the fluffy portion of the feather is black. 

 Will say, however, that in the tail proper all of the web por- 

 tion of the feather should be penciled with straight bars as 

 shown on the chart. In scoring the specimen the judge al- 

 ways examines the tail color, well down near the roots of 



the feather, for many otherwise good specimens are found 

 to be defective there. One of the common defects to be found 

 at the root of the tail feathers is solid black; this defective 

 coloring sometimes extends upward three or four inches 

 from the base, with no sign of penciling. Such tails should 

 bo discounted- one-half to one and one-half. Another defect 

 sometimes found at the base of the tail feathers consists of 

 broad bands or bars of pure white. As a rule, this is caused 

 by trying to breed too wide a band of white on the tail cov- 

 erts and on the ends of the tail feathers. Too much "White 

 blood" crops out at the base of 

 the tail, and sometimes it will 

 show at the base of the pri- 

 maries in wings. 



Here we come upon the se- 

 cret of what makes the breed- 

 ing of fancy poultry so deeply 

 interesting. If 'we attempt to 

 mix our colors too strongly, 

 nature silently, but unfailing- 

 ly, steps in and blurs them up 

 for us. If these wide white 

 bars appear at the base of 

 feathers, the out is one-fourth 

 to one-half, as in degree. 

 Where the barring is 

 irregular on the tail 



Copyright. 

 R. I*. J. 



IDEAL OR STANDARD BRONZE TURKEY FEMALE. 



Fig. 3- Chart, Drawn by Franklaae L. Sewell, Showing Outline and Markings of Ideal or 

 Standard Bronze Turkey Female. 



