T HE C A M P I N E S 



the normal weight; this was a pious expression, not a 

 standard pronouncement. 1 think this is high-water 

 mark myself, and I should strongly oppose any further 

 addition. Those who have bred Campines are in the 

 best position to know the right weights. I do not want 

 to confuse size and weight or to create such confusion 



in the minds of my readers. 

 is an economic weight for 

 every breed; exceed this, 

 and nature revenges her- 

 self by decreased prolifi- 

 cacy or decreased size of 

 eggs or both. We do not 

 want to rouse Madame 

 Nature. 



Hamburg Crosses 



I do not suppose just 

 now an article on Cam- 

 pines would be complete 

 without some mention of 

 this. We are told freely 

 that our birds show evi- 

 dences of crossing with 

 Hamburgs. Now, I should 

 confess that, as a humble 

 student of Mendelism, I 

 have no repugnance to- 

 war d s crossing, and T 

 should not hesitate to cross 

 if I saw any advantage in 

 so doing. I will further con- 

 fess that I have tried everj' 

 way of crossing that I could 

 conceive of, and with the 

 result that I got nothin.!,; 

 that it would pay me to in- 

 troduce into my strain. 

 When persons say that my 

 exhibition strain shows evi- 

 dence of Hamburg cross- 

 ing, they are talking arrant 

 nonsense — a nonsense which 

 shows they do not under- 

 stand the possibilities of 

 Campine breeding or of 

 what a liamburg-Campine 



We must rememljer there 



A CAMPINE-PHEASANT HYBRID 



Thi.s spirit«a looking bird I saw on the poultry 

 plant of Rev. E. Lewi.s Jones, in Wales. It is a hybrid 

 that came from the crossing of a pheasant and a 

 Campine. It has proved unfertile with members of 

 either parent species and should Rev. Jones produce 

 others they probably would follow the usual rule and 

 prove unfertile among- themselves. The word "hybrid" 

 is derived from a Greek Vi^ord which translated means 

 "an insult or outrage, and a hybrid has been supposed 

 to be an outrage on nature, an unnatural product." 

 As a general rule, birds belonging to different species 

 do not produce offspring -when crossed with each 

 other, and when they do breed, the progeny are termed 

 hybrids, while the word mongrel is used to name the 

 common product of crossing distant varieties of the 

 same species. Rev. Jones has made a .number of crosses 

 among the varieties of domesticated poultry. He is a 

 close student of Mendelism and he is a personal friend 

 of Bateson. The first chapter in the new edition of 

 Lewis Wright's Poultry Book is a chapter on Mendel- 

 ism by the Rev. Jones. 



cross looks like. We 

 the Hamburg we have 



must bear in mind that in 

 highly developed and complex marking, the result 

 of at least half a century of breeding. When 

 you cross with a Campine you let loose all the 

 centrifugal forces kept in check by breeding in a 

 definite direction, and the results are amazing. Were 

 breeding such a simple thing that equal black and white 

 on the Hamburg could be immediately transferred into 

 three blacks to one white on the Campine or something 

 near, or even if we could keep the Hamburg regularity, 

 then breeding would be so easy that many of us would 



prefer to play marbles. From 1899 to 1903 Campines 

 were in the hands of some of the most skillful breeders 

 of the day, and had the Hamburg cross been a short 

 cut to the Campine standard a clear back bird would 

 have been exhibited before 1904. Most people who write 

 this Hamburg cross nonsense are mere babies in arms 

 in the matter of Ijreeding to the veterans who bred Cam- 

 pines twelve years ago. 

 However, the problem is 

 simply stated. Cross Ham- 

 burg and Campine, and you 

 have four things to out- 

 breed: CI) Red eye; (2) 

 size of eggs; (3) type; (4) 

 penciling. It requires a 

 man skillful above the aver- 

 age to make that cross 

 successfully, and I should 

 feel proud had I been able 

 to achieve it. Again, a 

 Hamburg has a red eye, 

 but no one will contend 

 that every red-eyed Cam- 

 pine is the product of this 

 cross. Further, in the years 

 Flamburg fanciers have 

 been breeding, they have 

 not had a good wing bar. 

 Campinists have, and it is 

 one of the Campine's 

 special points of beauty. 

 Did this come from the 

 Hamburg cross? 



I have not the space to 

 discuss all possible crosses, 

 but the conclusion of the 

 whole matter, from my 

 short experience is. that 

 you cannot cross the Cam- 

 pine- with any hopes of 

 success. I do not say it 

 cannot be done, but only 

 that I do not know the 

 way to do it, and I shall 

 be glad to hear of a way, 

 providing I can examine 

 many tales, and I always 

 put to the test any theory, however fantastic it may ap- 

 pear to be, for one never knows; it may be. a pearl of 

 price, even if out of a toad's mouth, as the Welsh pro- 

 verb has it. My experience has made me very sceptical 

 indeed of the wonderful results to be had from cross- 

 ing, n the Campine is the bird I think it is, then there 

 is no means of crossing it without deterioration. 



If the reader has not tried Campines — well, let him 

 give them a fair trial, and keep them for, say, three 

 years, until he has come to understand the breed, and 

 I feel sure that he will be as devoted to them as I am. 



the birds. I have heard 



