22 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



from the many breeds and varieties, if jumbled together, 

 just the one variety which would best suit his own aims 

 and his own personal likings as well. He may be ner- 

 vous, and thus inclined to abhor nervous fowls ; he may be 

 just snappy enough to abhor a slow and apparently stupid 

 variety, etc. How can one select from such a large 

 number, with any degree of certainty of getting just 

 what he wants .'' 



Fortunately, the grouping of breeds into Classes is a 

 great help just here. And I regard the Class to which 

 a bird belongs as the one important thing for a Beginner 

 to study first. Under each Class, he will find placed the 

 birds which are nearest alike in certain general charac- 

 teristics. If those characteristics appeal to him, he 

 needs to study more definitely only the breeds under 

 this class, and the varieties under these breed names 

 which appeal most to him. 



Before he goes very far, he will wonder how breeds 

 come into existence, and who makes breed laws. For, 

 each breed must have its law, or it would soon be changed 

 beyond recognition, by the many breeders into whose 

 hands it passes, each of whom may like to mold it a bit 

 to his better liking. 



The making of a breed or variety is, at the initial 

 stages, a matter of individual work ; or, sometimes, of 

 accident. Sometimes, two or more people agree to work 

 together to perfect a certain type of bird. After a time, 

 they begin to tell the public about it, and when they 

 have bred it to a uniformity sufficient to comply with 

 the rules of admission to the Standard of Perfection, — ■ 

 that sum of all poultry law, — the originator, or origina- 

 tors, apply to have it " admitted." Sometimes there is 



