APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 5 1 1 



Fig. 518. Model head of 

 Single-Combed Leghorn 

 male (Brown Leghorn)^ 



It was especially observed in breeding the Partridge Cochin, in which the 



Standard requires very distinct pencilings in all sections in the female, that 



while these pencilings could not be produced typically in the male, and the red 

 appeared only as a defect on the black of the breast 

 and body, the son of a well-penciled female, when 

 mated with females of Standard type, would usually 

 produce daughters similarly well penciled. On the 

 other hand, from a female with poor penciling (colors 

 distributed but pattern not arranged) a male might 

 be produced (to all appearances like the other) which, 

 mated with the same females, would give daughters 

 distinctly inferior in penciling. Similar observations 

 were made in regard to the production of the desired 

 type of males. The sexes having the same colors 

 in different patterns, the color of a male indicated 

 only the general shade or tone of color of his 



daughters, the color of a female only the general color tone of her sons ; and 



unless the breeder knew the details of color of the sire of a female or the dam 



of a male, he could form no idea of 



what their influence would be on 



the markings of their offspring of 



the opposite sex. Thus it was 



demonstrated empirically in the 



experience of many breeders, most 



of whom were not versed in the 



science of evolution, that, in breed- 

 ing poultry in which the sexes differ 



in color, the most important thing 



to know about a bird is the color 



of its parents. 



For a long time the common 



practice in mating Partridge Co- 

 chins and Brown Leghorns, which 



were the black-red varieties most 



popular with fanciers, was to make 



intermediate matings, using a male 



with a slight tendency to a mixture 



of red in black sections with both 



dark and light females in the same 



pen. This sometimes gives good 



birds of both sexes, — occasionally 



a large proportion of them ; but it 



is, at best, a makeshift method of 



getting results, and the breeder 



Fig. 519. Partridge Plymouth Rock cock- 

 erel. (Photograph from owner, Frank T. 

 Chambers, Bristol, Pennsylvania) 



1 Photograph from Grove Hill Poultry Yards. 



