SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 177 



true that when the hrccd began to attract attention, new erusse'^ 

 were made, and improvement came in the same way that Ray secured 

 improvement in the ah'eady existing stoclc of Silver Seabrights by 

 resorting to a Chittagong cross. 



Hamburg-Brahma crosses. It is known that both Silver Spangled 

 Hamburgs and Dark Brahmas were crossed, and that these crosses 

 were amalgamated with the existing stock of Sebright Cochins. In 

 those days the spangling of the Hamburg was not as highly devel- 

 oped as is seen in the pronounced pear-shaped spangling of today. 

 Oftentimes the spangle was only a splasli of black at the end of the 

 featlier, while in other birds the spangling showed the rudiments of 

 lacing. See illustration. The penciling of the Dark Brahma was 

 also more faintly determined and less strongly established. The 

 natural result was that when the mooney spangling of the Hamburg 

 was crossed with the crescentic lines of penciling carried by the Dark 

 Brahma, there developed a strong tendency to lacing. 



The matter is quite correctly summed up in the Standard of Perfec- 

 tion in the statement thaL: 



Tust what breeds entered into the first Silver Wyandottes, it is impossible to say. 

 That Dark Brahmas and Silver Spangled Hamburgs were two of thein has been 

 proved, as a cross of these two breeds produces fowls that resemble Wyandottes, but 

 fail in shape and partly in color. 



In writing of the new breed of Wyandottes in 1886, -three years 

 after their admission to the Standard, B. N. Pierce, the most promi- 

 nent western poultry judge of that day, said: 



That they were principally the result of a cross between Dark Brahmas and 

 Hamburgs is quite apparent, often indicated by reversion to white ear lobes and 

 to spangles in the plun:age of the females, which come from the Hamburg: and to 

 the wing markings and other characteristics of the Dark Brahmas, 



F. A. Houdlette, who named the breed, has written that he never 

 had any doubt about the Dark Brahma figuring largely in the make-up 

 of the Wyandotte, and that the first stock he had was of Dark 

 Brahma origin crossed with Hamburgs and AVhite Cochins. He 

 adds that the White Cochin blood kept cropping out in white chicks, 

 w^hich later on were bred together and became the White Wyandottes. 



Whittaker develops an ideal. John P. Ray was a prominent 

 breeder of the early stock, and the Ray birds went under the name 

 of Sebright Cochins. In the spring of 1873. L. H. Whittaker. of 

 Michigan, learned of the Ray stock and made inquiry concerning it. 

 The next year Whittaker secured a cock and pullet from Ray. The 

 following year he secured considerable additional stock of Ray's 

 Sebright Cochins, and wrote to Ray that he didn't want feather- 

 legged birds, as he had decided to "breed them clean-legged with 

 the edging or lacing of black entirely around the feathers, and with 

 small combs." Ray evidently wanted the feather-legged type, for 



