302 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
birds. Their plumage grows rusty, and the bright orange legs 
fade out as the season advances for the second moult. Especially 
is this true of persistent layers. Often and again have I been 
disappointed in my fine yellow-legged birds of early spring, for, 
as the season advances, and they pile the eggs up, the legs gradu- 
ally bleach out until they become by August a pale flesh, or, as 
generally termed, white. The bloom is washed off, and, in a 
Leghorn, is almost a certain indication of a good layer. 
“In Leghorns, either brown or white, the whitest ear-lobed 
bird is apt to possess the palest coloured legs. Often a pale lemon 
that fades to flesh colour. The deep orange tint will fade with 
egg-production.” 
The same idea has come out several times since, and probably 
it came out much earlier. 
The first station publication that I have found that refers to 
shank colour is Circular 54 of the New York State Department 
of Agriculture, published in 1912. This gives the results of the 
findings of some observations carried on in 1910. 
From the work done in 1915, there is a very slightly better 
correlation between colour of shank and egg-production than 
between moulting and egg-production. 
Connecticut was the first station to point out the relation 
between ear-lobe colour and egg-production. This seems to be 
more valuable in indicating immediate past production, rather 
than yearly production. 
A method of determining whether red ear-lobed birds are laying 
was found by Mr Lynch in a series of observations taken as a 
serious problem. The ear lobes and face of a heavy laying bird 
tend to be much paler than that of a non-laying bird. This is 
apparently not as accurate a method, or at least not as finely 
graded, as determining the yellow in white ear-lobed birds. 
It should be borne in mind that in addition to egg-production 
the yellow pigmentation is very decidedly intluenced by the degree 
of pigmentation in the bird, by vitality, by feed, and by range. 
Orange-coloured shanks do not fade out nearly as fast as light 
lemon-coloured shanks. Some birds will have pale shanks by 
