204 



THE AMERICAN BREEDS OF POULTRY 



and body, for it is this part of his plumage that corresponds to the female coloring. 

 If he is not shafted in breast, he will seldom if ever be shafted elsewhere. 



Test the male's strength of surface by searching for mealiness in the wing 

 fronts and wing coverts. Mealiness consists of what appears to be a line powdering 

 of white over the buff. At a distance it may look like very even bufif. It is one 

 of the most difficult defects to throw off, and needs a strength of rich color in the 

 male to override it, and even then it will take years. 



White anywhere should not be tolerated. Space is too valuable to go dnto the 



Sensational Buff Wyandotte cock. shown at Chicago, Dec., 1919, 

 by Ralph Sturdevant, Illinois. His grandsire won 1st as a cockerel 

 at Boston. 



scientific details of this, but white is a weakness in the color pigment which you 

 are trying to fix, and will ruin any flock. Mealiness is the beginning of a tendency 

 toward white. This should suffice. Black is an entirely different matter. It is a 

 Standard defect, but it is a sign usually of strength of color, and Orpington breeders 

 who have tolerated it in years past when Wyandotte breeders were bowling against 

 n, have attained wonderful color in their birds. We do not like to see it in the 

 wings, but a little black in the tail is a small defect, and it is always safe to have 



