34 COCKER S MANUAL. 



oldest and best breeders in Cheshire — that I had great difficulty in 

 keeping him alive. I determined to breed from him this spring not- 

 withstanding his injury, so I placed six brood hens with him in No- 

 vember, and not until March, after sitting several nests of eggs by 

 him without producing a single chick did I become satisfied that he had 

 totally lost all procreative power, as all the eggs were marked with the 

 date they were laid and all set. I found the eggs became prolific on 

 and after the fifth day from the introduction of another stag and not 

 before. Again, I had occasion to take a cock from a brood walk 

 early in the spring. A black hen was then running with a brood of 

 young chickens, and after leaving them she laid away privately in the 

 woods, and nine weeks and two days after the cock was taken away she 

 appeared with a brood of eleven strong chickens. There was no pos- 

 sibility of her getting with another cock, no other fowl being kept 

 within a mile of the place. Requiring a few game fowls of a particu- 

 lar color for some friends in Australia, I last year placed a gray pullet 

 with a brown-red cock, both having been carefully bred in-and-in and 

 to their respective feathers, for many years previous, the produce be- 

 ing exactly what I required, viz: blotch breasted dark grays with 

 marigold-shouldered cocks, and a more uniform brood in color, shape 

 and style it would be difiicult to find. Being so successful I this year 

 placed >vith the cock three other sisters to the pullet which had never 

 perviously heard a cock crow. The produce of these bear the closest 

 resemblance to those hatched last year, but their sister (mother of last 

 year's trial brood) has hatched nine chickens, all quite undistinguisha- 

 ble from true brown red and good brown reds, too. Is this caused 

 by any latent influence of the brown-red cock from last year ? And 

 will her sisters if left with the same cock until next year produce 

 brown-reds instead of grays ? I have noticed variations of colors caused 

 by change of constitution, water, soil, and especially by food. 

 I had a weakness in my boyish days for breeding from any- 

 strange cock I saw distinguish himself in a main, and the 

 motley colors I often got were a sight to see, even when the hens 

 happened to match the cock through the hot meals and stimulating 

 food which the cock had been fed on during his preparation for bat- 

 tle, but none of these things can have affected the birds in question 

 in the least, and although I have my own opinion as to the cause, I 

 shall be glad to have that of some more competent person." 



