The Campine 



The Origin of the Gampine— Its Eoonomioal Qualities — Early Crosses That Were Made— The English Con- 

 sider 3's Pounds for Hens and S'i Pounds for Cooks the Normal Weight — A Roomy House is 

 Required for Campiues, and the Breeder Must Be Careful Not to Overfeed 



By Rev. E. Lewis Jones. Ueyope Iteotory, Knighton. Radnorshire. England 



UNDER this name — the Campine — we designate a 

 breed that has its origin in Belgium, and is de- 

 rived from two varieties there — the Campine and 

 the Braekel. These two are very similar in marking, 

 but differ in size (the Braekel being the larger), in type, 

 and in certain other characteiistics. The Braekel and the 

 Campine must have come originally from the same stock 

 (undoubtedly' the Campine is a stunted Braekel), and 

 have varied under the influence of environment, and 

 through infusion of the blood of the races already in the 

 districts when they were introduced into their present 

 habitats. 



The history of the breeds is unknown. They may 

 have been in Belgium when Julius Caesar visited the 

 place, and maybe they were the birds the old soldier 

 took back with him to Rome, and which the Roman 

 epicures much enjoyed. Undoubtedly, the Campine and 

 Braekel are the G. turcica of Aldrovandus. We know 

 for certain that these two were the noted breeds of Bel- 

 gium of 400 years ago. The parent stock hens have a 

 long, egg-laying pedigree, and I may as well say here 

 that the English Campine has gained rather than lost 

 in egg-laying power since its introduction into England. 

 It has gained because we have bred for the character of 

 egg-laying just as we have bred for improvement in 

 markings of feathers. I say this because at present cer- 

 tain people in England and abroad 

 delight in libeling the English Cam- 

 pine. It passes my comprehension 

 why they should thus bear false 

 witness against the bird as they per- 

 sistentl}' do. Not only have we im- 

 proved the prolificacy of the bird, 

 but we have more than maintained 

 the size of the egg. There is no 

 means of getting at the traducers of 

 the English Campine. except thus to 

 expose them. 



The bird, as introduced into Eng- 

 land, differed a good deal from our 

 present exhibition bird. The male 

 had practically a white top, and the 

 tail was black. The females were 

 not at all well barred, and in a few 

 cases were the colors separate. To 

 breed good cockerels and good pul- 

 lets according to the Belgian stand- 

 ard means double-mating, and the 

 English Campine Club decided that 

 it was not desirable that Campines 

 should require double mating; so 

 they determined to standardize the male similar to the 

 female. I think they were wise in this decision, be- 

 cause they avoided double-mating, and because to 

 standardize the male similar to the female means 

 to strengthen the economic quality of the female — in this 

 case, egg-laying. I need not here tell again how the 

 greatest Belgian poultry authority, the late Monsieur L. 

 Vander Snickt, was converted to the truth of this by re- 



membering how similar the males were to the females 

 amongst the cattle of Denmark, where cows are noted 

 for their milk-producing qualities. 



The English standard Campine is, then, a bird with 

 white neck hackle, the rest of the body barred, the black 

 bar being as near as possible three times as wide as the 

 white ground color, and certainly not less than three 

 times as wide. The white ground color must be open and 

 bold, not narrow threads, something like fine cobwebs, 

 going across a black body. Each feather should end in 

 a clear white bar. The barrings should suggest rings 

 round the body, the geometrical exactitude being broken 

 by the rounded ends of the feathers. The dividing line 

 between the colors in the bar should be clearly defined 

 and straight, not dovetailing or zig-zagging in any way. 

 Most certainly the bar should not be curved, or in the 

 shape of a horseshoe. The direction of the bar may 

 vary — that is, it may run transversely or obliquely across 

 the feathers. What is important is that the edge colors 

 should be clean cut and distinct. The oblique direc- 

 tion of the bar is very pretty, giving rise to what is 

 described as mackerel markings. All that I have so tar 

 attempted to describe I call the regularity of the mark- 

 ings. This regularity gives exceeding beauty to the bird, 

 and here very often judges go wrong, placing a bird for- 

 ward because he is heavily marked, disregarding much 



BRABKBLS 



An ideal pair (1900) from drawings forwarded by the secretary of the Braekel 

 Club of Belg-ium to "The Feathered World," England. 



more regularly but less heavily marked birds, which are 

 in reality far ahead. 



Now we must examine the individual feathers, and 

 the first point is the distinct white tip. Then we look 

 to see if the colors are pure — the white white, without 

 any intermixture of black or grey; the black black 

 without a tendency to an intermediate bar of very nar- 

 row gray in the middle of the black. This is most im- 



