FEATHERS AND THE MOLT 397 



The plumy dress of the birds is a decoration whose 

 worth we value fully only when we see a bird which has 

 lost it. But it is far from being decoration only, and, 

 be3'ond the matter of protection, feathers have a direct 

 bearing on egg production. The fowl with too thin a 

 coat is not a good winter layer in a cold location ; yet 

 the one with too heavy a coat is not likely to fall into 

 the class of best layers at all. Those birds of the Amer- 

 ican breeds which are more heavily feathered than the 

 average of their kind, are apt to fall below the average 

 of the breed in laying capacity. Since feathers manipu- 

 lated properly by the breeder who is working up a strain, 

 may give any appearance desired, the feathers are likely 

 to be encouraged. And, since feather growth requires 

 much the same nutritive material as egg production, it 

 is easy to see how a too heavy growth of feathers might 

 work against a heavy egg output. A moderately heavy, 

 close-lapped coat of feathers is the ideal protection for a 

 laying fowl. The wind cannot easily penetrate such 

 a coat, and it takes only the necessary nutriment to 

 provide. 



Some studies in molting made at Cornell University 

 Experiment Station by a careful young woman from one 

 of the Short Courses, Miss Clara Nixon, showed that 

 maturing birds may grow several coats of feathers in a 

 single season. The owner of the highest (claimed) 

 record for Indian Runners showed his faith in his stock 

 by entering some of the descendants of the bird making 

 the record in a public laying competition. They made 

 an average record of over two hundred seventeen each 

 in twelve months. He accounts in part for this "poor 

 showing " — as he calls it — by the fact that they passed 



