BREEDING FOE COLOUR. 149 



birds of a peculiar reddish-grey mixture, which English breeders 

 call " Stra-wberry colour," and Scotchmen "Sandies." Both 

 colours — ^the red particularly — must be good ; and if a sandy 

 from such a cross be matched again to a black at all decent, 

 the result, according to both Mr. Ure and Mr. Fulton, is generally 

 satisfactory. Dark chequers bred from blacks and blues are 

 useful if no better offers; but every one who has tried it 

 considers red the best cross. 



Blues are bred together. They breed also lighter blues of 

 a silver tint, and lightish blues with brown or kite bars instead 

 of the desired black bars. Such kite-barred birds are termed 

 "silver-mealies" by Scotch breeders, and it is singular that they 

 often surpass the blues in length of limb and feather. They 

 accordingly make most valuable crosses for blues, but any 

 other cross is apt to injure the colouring; and there are, in 

 particular, many blues about of a most disagreeable smoky 

 tinge, owing to a cross with the black. These dark birds are 

 generally runtish, and should be discouraged. The great 

 difficulty in breeding blues is a tendency to get too "gay." 

 The birds tend to be short of bib, or bishopped, or ring-necked, 

 (fee. Such birds must always be matched to such as are short 

 of white, or the result will be white splashes, downright 

 swallow-throat, white shoulders, and faults of that sort. 



Reds and yellows are most scarce — good ones are rare 

 indeed. The difficulty with them is the colour, which is 

 washed out or mealy. "We must refer to Mr. Fulton's large 

 work for detailed notes on these colours, only observing that he 

 condemns the breeding of red and yellow together as spoiling 

 both, and advises breeding matured reds together as the best 

 means of improving the colour. When such matching produces 

 a good yellow, as it sometimes will, that is the best cross for a 

 yellow ; or a red may also be crossed with a yellow ; but in 

 that case this great Scotch authority warns us against ever 

 using even a red of the progeny, however good in colour, to 



