18 



THE CAM PINES 



of the Belgian Braekel, neither are they so thick 

 through the shoulders, so heavy behind, or so big in 

 bone. The Braekels in Belgium are somewhat of a 

 two-purpose fowl, their eggs being shipped across the 

 frontier to the French markets, while the poultry itself 

 affords delicious "poulets" for the Brussels restaurants- 

 Half a Braekel, lettuce salad, bread and beer form a 

 favorite lunch in Brussels; and one restaurant that we 

 patronized received on a standing order, 125 Braekels 

 a day. 



The Braekels, as we have seen them in Belgium in 

 the farm yards of the peasantry, are broad and flat 

 across the cape, with heavy shoulders and . are mod"- 

 erately short and thick in shanks. The posterior sec- 

 tion is well developed, indeed, rather heavy in some 

 specimens. 



Fig. 3 was made from an unretouched photo of an Eng- 

 lish-bred Silver Campine pullet, which was imported, 

 and won first at the Madison Square Garden Show a 

 year ago. She was shown by M. R. Jacobus, Ridgefield, 

 N. J. You will note her apparent alertness and ready 

 action, with which is accompanied a rather ■ racy sta- 

 tion. All this is typically Campine, the little Belgian 

 Campines of the sandy plains having these character- 

 istics. The shoulders of this pullet are not heavy, and 

 behind she is neat like a Leghorn, rather than inclined 

 to bag like a Dorking. 



In the American Club Standard from which we take 

 the liberty of quoting, the thighs and shanks are de- 

 scribed as ''rather long and slender," and the back of 

 the female is described as "not too broad at shoulders, 

 somewhat rounded across cape." It is easy to under- 

 stand how a bird of this type could be too large and too 

 coarse to be good. 



As the Buff Leghorn male was elevated from .the 

 heavy, squatty type to the spirited Leghorn type of to- 

 day, so selective breeding is being carried on to raise 

 the Campine male to a good station. Big, tall, heavy 

 birds, however, would resemble Minorcas, and the Cam- 

 pine should never be so coarse in bone or in the shanks 

 so heavily muscular that they are not round like a lead 

 pencil and the scales neat and finely laid on. Of all 

 the defects, none should be more heavily penalized than 

 rough shanks or signs of scabbiness. In the fine blue 

 shanks a yellowish powdery crust under the scales, due 

 to the scaly-leg mite, is most unsightly. 



When a Campine is Judged 



The legs are seen before you take the bird from 

 the CQOp, and before he is shaped up. They are an im- 

 portant section; they are the foundation on which the 

 chicken stands. In shaping up the chicken, it is desir- 

 able to give him the benefit of every point. Campine 

 males are inclined to be a little sharp at the juncture 

 of back and tail, and high in tail, so I gather the saddle 

 hangers in my hand, and as the bird steps away I pull 

 them over the tail and press the tail down. The longer 

 the saddle feathers are the better. If the tail is a square 

 henny brush, with short sickles, devoid of lesser sickles 

 and poorly sided up with coverts, you can not do much 

 to improve the carriage and such a bird should not be 

 placed in a strong class. 



In discussing the various sections of the bird, we 

 will start at the beginning, which is the head, as if we 

 had taken a bird from the coop and begun to handle 

 it. In Belgium a very large comb is considered both 

 desirable and pretty. American fanciers have insisted 

 on refining the appendage to what may be termed med- 



ium size. In the female the comb should rise to the 

 first point and then fall to one side, as in the Leghorn; 

 but the male comb should dififer from that of a Leg- 

 horn, in that the blade proceeds slightly below the hor- 

 izontal, having a tendency to follow the back of the 

 head, but not resting upon the head, as in the Minorca. 

 Five points are desired. 



The eyes are a very important section of the head. 

 Red eyes are a serious defect. However, judges in 

 the average show, to whose lot falls the Campine, are 

 not inclined to pay a great deal of attention to eye 

 color so long as the general character of the bird is 

 good. This is to be regretted. It would be easy to 

 breed beautifully colored Campines when stress is not 

 laid on the color of the eyes. With the red eye of the 

 English Silver Penciled Hamburg, the clear cut barring 

 and beautiful color of the English Hamburg also as- 

 serts itself. The eye should approach black in color, 

 the iris being "dark brown and the pupil black." The 

 English Standard calls for the same, and the Belgian 

 Standard reads: "Eye: Vetch (chick pea), that is to 

 say, very dark, appearing black." There is an economic 

 value in this dark eye. When the matter was before 

 the club's standard committee and the discussion was 

 whether red eyes should be an absolute disqualification, 

 Mr. Jacobus remarked: "I bred a red eyed bird and he 

 cost me between two and three thousand dollars. Not 

 over 5 per cent of his pullets laid white-shelled eggs. 

 We must produce better eggs than the Leghorn lays." 

 Vander Snickt says: "The eye should be black * * * 

 an expression of face almost like a "negresse," and this 

 excess of black and bluish pigment on the face has un- 

 questionably some connection with the quality of the 

 egg." It may be well to add here that in judging Silver 

 Campines, if some blue pigment is streaked in the comb, 

 it should not be considered a defect or an indication 

 of poor physical condition. 



Ear-lobes are frequently defective in the males, al- 

 m,ost solid red lobes being seen occasionally. How- 

 ever, when the red covers more than one-half of the 

 lobes, the bird should be passed. The lobes should be 

 white, but a tint of blue in those of the female should 

 not be decidedly objectionable. The wattles should be 

 medium size and nicely rounded, not long and folded. 

 They are usually found good. 



Color of Back Very Important 



The most important color section of the bird is the 

 back. In Fig. 2 is reproduced a feather that was plucKed 

 from the back of the third prize Silver cockerel at the 

 last Madison Square Garden Show. The color of the 

 feather — and of the Silver Campine plumage — is black, 

 barred with white. No matter about the undercolor; 

 that has been a bug-a-boo in the American fancy for 

 forty years. Now, as new breeds come in, let us put 

 them on the right basis for breeding, enabling the fan- 

 cier to concentrate his efforts on the surface color, that 

 part of the plumage which is at once seen and first ap- 

 preciated. The more green lustre in the black of the 

 surface, the better. Stripes of gray running through the 

 black bars, or intermediate barring, as it is called, makes 

 a mossy appearance, and clouds the clearness of the 

 well-defined white bars snapping out vividly against the 

 glossy, greenish black. This mossiness or intermediate 

 barring is commonly found in the females. While the 

 white bars are narrow,- the plumage should not have <i 

 blackish appearance, for a clear cast is secured by each 

 feather ending with a white bar. The barring of the 



