184 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



dottes out of shape — when an American judge looked at them side- 

 ways, and American judges are l<een on the profile view. The English 

 also were enabled to sacrifice back and tail, for they looked at the 

 lacing of their males on the front. The result was a brassy back 

 and little striping in many of the English males. The English blood, 

 therefore, had to be employed judiciously, that the American breeder 

 might hold the good already existent in his flock, and at the same 

 time amalgamate the remarkable lacing of the English birds. 



Sebright lacing. American breeders as a whole have never bred 

 as extreme open lacing, with as narrow an edging of black, as have 

 the English. We are today producing a larger individual feather 

 than formerly, which makes the lacing larger. We are producing a 

 feather that is laced with a narrow, lustrous greenish-black lacing 



Silver Sebrifjht Bantams. Lacing has been their prin- 

 cipal point of attractiveness for more than a century. They 

 are the true open-laced birds, being laced in tail, whereas a 

 Silver Wyandotte is black in tail like a Dark Brahma. 



that conforms to the edge of the feather. But the true Sebright 

 lacing which the English produced is not possible with us, because 

 of our traditions. We hold to black wing primaries that are white 

 only on the lower edges; we demand a tail that is black. The 

 Sebright's wing flights and tail are white, evenly and distinctly laced 

 with a narrow edging of black, just as is its breast. 



In our Silver Wyandottes we also demand a silvery white neck 

 that has a black stripe in the center of each feather, of which the 

 shaft is white. The Sebright has a neck that is white, laced with 

 black the same as in its breast. The striped neck of our Silver Wyan- 

 dottes, the black flights, the lustrous, greenish-black tail, are an 

 inheritance from the Dark Brahma. Unless the breeder stops short 



