The Present Show Quality of American 

 Standard Runners 



CHAPTER III 



The American Standard type of Indian Runners, as seen in 

 the best shows, is not only a different type of bird from the Eng- 

 lish Runner, but it is in the main decidedly different from the 

 ideal which has, up to the present date of writing, been pictured 

 and described in the American Standard of Perfection. The 

 ideals of the breeders have been gradually changing, as to color, 

 and the birds that win now are quite different in color from those 

 that won a few years ago. The allowance of gray for so many 

 years, as well as the preferred fawn, while possibly it seemed 

 necessary at the beginning, did not work to the good of the breed. 

 A far larger proportion of males still come with gray breasts than 

 would have been the case could the Standard have demanded, 

 from the first, that fawn should be the one color, without the gray 

 as an alternate. 



Amazingly enough, a breeder has recently appeared in the 

 public prints, claiming that a gray sheen characterizes the best 

 ducks ! Considering the years of bitter battle for pure, solid 

 fawn in American Standard Runners, this might well be named 

 the height of inconsistency and folly. 



I have studied much over the peculiar demands at some 

 points of the American Standard of Perfection, in its dealing with 

 Indian Runners. Its ideal pictures in the 1905 American Stand- 

 ard are near the demands for good Runners, as laid down by the 

 EngHsh Standard. At two points in the text, however, the Amer- 

 ican demand swings quite away from the English Standard just 



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