PARTRTnr.F. WYANDOTTES 215 



The name selected. The rivalry between the two protips of east- 

 ern and western breeders was accentuated liy the fact that Bracken- 

 bury and Cornell very much preferred tliat tlic variety should be 

 known as the Golden Penciled Wyaudottes, on the ground that the 

 birds did not have the true partridge markings of our wild l)irds, 

 but had penciled feathers. The breeders of the west were insistent 

 on the name of Partridge Wyandottes, they preferring not to dis- 

 associate the penciled feather from the word Partridge, which had so 

 long been applied to that variety of Cochin in which the feathers 

 were of this same color and pattern. The preference of the western 

 breeders prevailed in the meeting of the American Poultry Associa- 

 tion at Chicago in 1901, and the new variety was admitted to the 

 Standard as the Partridge Wyandotte. Nevertheless, Ezra Cornell 

 and other eastern breeders continued to advertise and exhibit their 

 fowls as Golden Penciled Wyandottes. The publication of a new 

 edition of the Standard in 1902, in which the new variety was classified 

 as the Partridge, efifectively killed the last hopes of the eastern origi- 

 nators. The formation of a Partridge Wyandotte Club in 1900 was 

 now bringing all breeders together and there sprung up a community 

 of interest that has ever since welded them in a fine fraternal spirit. 



The first Partridge Wyandottes were shown at the Kansas City 

 (Missouri) show in 1894 by E. O. Thiem. He wrote that in 1893 his 

 efiforts and those of McKeen were crowned with success. This was 

 about the time that the Brackenbury stock was used by the western 

 breeders. Shortly after the showing at Kansas City, Ezra Cornell 

 had an opportunity to buy the entire stock of Mr. Thiem; "but," 

 wrote Mr. Cornell (page 970, Reliable Poultry Journal, January, 1902), 

 "the sample feathers sent were not attractive. They were considered 

 by us inferior to what we already had." 



Cornell and Brackenbury were double mating, and the pullet line 

 was mostly on Cornell's Valleyview Farm at Ithaca, New York. He 

 produced a fine mahogany color in his females, cleanly penciled with 

 black bands that nicely followed the outlines of the feather. He 

 emphasized the point that "the nearer you come to getting every 

 feather well penciled, the finer bird you have." 



The western strain was bred by single or standard matings. 



Great improvers of the variety. Ezra Cornell died about 1902. 

 Joseph McKeen went to his reward in 1896 and his birds were divided 

 between E. O. Thiem and W. A. Doolittle, of Sabetha, Kansas. Mr. 

 Doolittle bred the stock with signal success, exhibiting in the east 

 as well as in the west. At Boston, 1903, he won first hen and first 

 pullet and sold the pullet for fifty dollars. 



Carver and Avey, Columbia City, Indiana, came into prominence 

 as breeders of Partridge Wyandottes about 1904. They won first 

 cockerel at the St. Louis World's Fair in that year, and exported 

 the bird to England at a price of $100. The bird was not satisfactory 



