SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 181 



nor alike in tlie blcniiing of penciling and spangks. Alttiougli tlu-y sliow a closer 

 resemlilance to the one or the other in the silvery white color of head, hackles, breast, 

 saddle and tail coverts, witli the objectionalile light straw color that lessens the 

 value of one, and was an original fault with the other. 



Feathers on shanks and penciled centers in the lacing continued 

 to he persistent faults, showing the trace of Dark Brahma blood; 

 while white in ear lobes and blue in shanks were unmistakable indi- 

 cations of the Hamburg cross. 



After laced breasts became the established character of the Silver 

 Laced Wyandotte males, the next point to develop was the wing bar. 

 The wing coverts which form the wing bars were commonly span- 

 gled, and open-centered lacing in these feathers added a beauty fea- 

 ture to the birds. Largely through the efforts of the late T, E. Orr 

 the Standard was changed at Indianapolis (1888) to call for a laced 

 wing bar. 



The spangling had come from the Hamburg. The Dark Brahma 

 had also stamped the new race with its tendenc3' to penciling, and 

 what is known as mossiness — that is, irregular, dark penciling appear- 

 ing in the feathers and destroying the pure white open centers — was 

 a common fault. Instead of breeding clean centers, breeders sought 

 the easier plan of closing up the centers by breeding a verj' heavy, 

 broad black band of lacing on the feather. In some instances the 

 white center was so small that it was little more than a white shaft 

 in the feather. This color type was the prevailing fashion in 1888. 



English blood. The centers were again opened out to "medium 

 centers." but it was late in the nineties before the pronounced open- 

 laced birds began to appear. These really open-laced birds were 

 imported from England. English breeders had been attracted to 

 the Wyandotte, and with the skill of Silver Sebright bantam breed- 

 ers, unhampered by predetermined opinions, the tendency of a buying 

 public, or the prejudice of judges, thej' had started in to open up 

 the lacing and breed for big white centers finely edged with black. 

 The English sacrificed other points, but produced beautiful open lacing. 



A Mr. Cochran, of Long Island, who had judged at the Madison 

 Square Garden show, was one of the first to show this wide-open 

 English lacing. It was about 1900 when Cochran exhibited birds of 

 this kind. At about the same time, T. C. Jodrey, of Massachusetts, 

 and Henry Steinmesh. of St. Louis, also secured English blood. 

 Steinmesh and Jodrey exchanged birds and were quite prominent 

 in the breeding of Silver ^^'yandottes for a number of years. 



Other breeders secured English blood, including F. A. Houdlette, 

 w-ho went to England in 1899 and purchased a cockerel from Spencer 

 Brothers. F. L. Mattison, of South Shaftsbury, Vermont, sent to 

 the Rev. Comberholme in England and paid $160 for a cock. The 

 infusion of the English blood into the American flocks did more than 

 anything else to produce the big, open, clean lacing seen in the 



