form." It would take a Barnum, a Bailey and a superintendenc 

 of several North American zoos to fill that double requirement! 

 Does any reader want to breed a so-called Runner of that de- 

 scription ? 



A certain garrulous breeder has written publicly of buying 

 eggs from prominent breeders of Penciled Runners and getting 

 "birds scarcely decent for market." This breeder seems ignorant 

 of the fact that if the birds thus raised were so poor in market 

 quality, it was because they were not properly fed! This same 

 breeder says that the white-egg goal was reached "long ago/' by 

 breeders of American Standard type ; yet in 1910, almost no one 

 mentioned white eggs. According to advertising put out, a 

 "white-egg strain" of "light fawn" ducks distinguished this 

 breeder's stock for a full year after the Standard repudiated 

 "light fawn" color. This same breeder, who has been claiming 

 nothing but white eggs since 1910 ( !) is now reported to me to 

 have very recently sold Runners 100% of which laid green eggs. 

 Three reputable judges saw these birds, it is said. This seems 

 rather effectually to dispose of one of the loudest claims to a 

 white-egg strain in American Standard Runners. Possibly 

 the better breeders have such strains. 



It has persistently been made to appear that some strains of 

 American Standard Runners lay white eggs. Perhaps this may 

 be true, in time, if not now. But, letters continue to come to me 

 complaining bitterly that these same breeders, despite these claims, 

 continue to send out stock which produces green eggs. 



A letter written Feb., 1913 says : "Last spring I bought four 

 ducks and a drake, said to be genuine fawn and white American 

 Standard, and layers of white eggs. We always got one green 

 egg from the bunch. We set only pure white eggs. Saved but 

 five ducks making nine in present bunch, and always get some 

 green eggs. Will a penciled drake help us, and to what extent ?" 



Here we find American Standard Runners giving more than 



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