8o cocker's manual. 



he is not a'true Black Red. The brown at tip of wings of any black- 

 breasted Red is not at all admissible. In a true Black Red, or prop- 

 erly dark-breasted Black Red, who has a crow wing, point black and 

 brown, and a Black Red could have no other colored breast or he 

 would not be Black Red, the breast being always named in match 

 bills. 



We have not space to enter on breeding more than this. If you 

 have a real good sort be careful not to spoil them by crossing, and a 

 very old cocker has said a failure needs no cross but total eradication, 

 and I would add, the best way to perpetuate any grand qualities is to 

 breed those that have those qualities in the greatest perfection, and if 

 those should be of the same family, which is not likely to be the case, 

 provided they are in perfect health and vigor and are the best you 

 know, then by all means breed from the best, although they should 

 be brother and sister. I am aware many will object to this as ridicu- 

 lous, but here is a fact, that all the crack breeds in England have been 

 so bred that scarcely a breeder in England has become celebrated for 

 a strain of cocks that has not adopted this in-and-in system. How 

 often have we known two of the very best strains that could be put 

 together get very indifferent produce, and it holds good with animals 

 as well. Mr. Balkwell bred his cattle on the same principle, as well 

 as other celebrated breeders of sheep, pigs and dogs, and the best 

 horses we have ever had on the turf are proved by pedigrees to have 

 been bred in the same manner. One thing never lose sight of, and 

 that is, that the brood cock has that first and greatest requisite, heel, 

 for it is that which wins and without which all other fine qualities are 

 useless. 



Of feeding I shall say still less. Every feeder thinks his own system 

 best, and has some infallible secret which is jealously kept, and I have 

 some half dozen recipes by me now which have been obtained at fab- 

 ulous prices from some of our most celebrated feeders by gentlemen 

 of fortune, and there is scarcely one I entirely agree with. Infallible 

 recipes are mostly infallible nonsense, and some that are published in 

 recent works on game fowls in America would insure death in 

 England if followed. There is a vast difference in the constitution of 

 cocks, climate, seasons of the year, fighting in steel and silver, which 

 the best recipes never allow for. I have seen strange things given 

 fowls, and I have never yet seen condition forced into a pen of cocks. 



