APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 



527 



Fig. 554. Rose-Combed Black Minorca cock- 

 erel. Undeveloped form of Fig. 552 1 



are never wholly absent in the 

 best-bred stock. When serious, 

 they cannot be got rid of by 

 any quick method. In stock 

 in which brassiness is bad no 

 improvement of consequence 

 can be made by mating with 

 good white stock. Because 

 brassiness may not appear in 

 females, a breeder often sup- 

 poses that it does not exist in 

 them, and uses them with 

 white males. Almost invariably 

 the result is brassy males in 

 the offspring. It is just as 

 necessary to know that the sire 

 of an apparently very white 

 hen was free from brassiness 

 as to know the breeding of the 

 sire of a black-red female. In 

 White Plymouth Rock males 



close inspection often shows a suggestion of black barring, especially in the 



hackle, and sometimes the tips of hackle feathers are plainly tipped with gray. 



The whitest plumage is secured only by long-continued selection of the whitest 



birds. In the present state of development of white breeds no one who breeds 



for exhibition can afford to waste 



time with birds in which brassiness 



is conspicuous. Those who breed 



white poultry for utility purposes 



need not be so careful, but males 



that are badly brassy should never 



be used. 



Mating black fowls. It is as 



rare for a black fowl to be dead 



black as it is for a white fowl 



to be pure white. Ordinary black 



fowls are a rusty black or a 



brown black, usually with white 



appearing as gray in various parts 



of the plumage, oftenest in the 



wing flights, in the concealed tail 



feathers, and in the undercolor. 



Even in good black fowls red is 



usually present, either visible or 



Fig. 555. Rose-Combed Black Minorca 

 pullet. Undeveloped form of Fig. 553 ^ 



^ Photograph from owner, G. A. Clark, Seymour, Indiana. 



