THE PROBLEMS IN MATING AND IN EGG PRODUCTION 91 



See that your birds for breeding have the proper colored 

 eyes. Too often this point is overlooked. 



In selecting males of laced varieties for illustration, the 

 Silver Laced Wyandotte do not breed from a male showing 

 white in the back or secondary white edging on the breast 

 or thigh feathers. 



Barred Plymouth Rocks. — Proper mating of Barred Ply- 

 mouth Rocks is of the more difficult problems. 



It appears impossible to produce males and females all the 

 same shade of color from any one mating. The males may be 

 lighter than the females. If the females from the mating are 

 of standard color, the males are likely to be too light for exhi- 

 bition purposes, or if the males are of standard shade of color 

 feather pattern, the females may be too dark. 



Therefore, mating of dark birds is essential to produce 

 cockerels of the right color and character of barring, and lighter 

 matings to produce females of proper barring. Female birds 

 showing white undercolor should not be bred from. The 

 barring should extend to the skin. 



Owing to the origin of the Barred Plymouth Rocks, the 

 natural tendency is for the females to come darker in color 

 than the males. This is true if you breed just one male and 

 one female together. Double mating then in Barred Ply- 

 mouth Rocks means a. that you must mate a dark colored 

 male bird with dark colored females for one mating; b. that 

 you must mate a hght colored male with light colored females 

 for the other mating. In other words, to-day there are two 

 kinds of Barred Plymouth Rocks — a light one and a dark one. 

 It may be considered that these are two strains separate and 

 distinct from each other. These two strains should never be 

 crossed on each other. If light male and dark females are 

 bred together or vice-versa the result will be very disappointing. 

 So long as light birds are bred together their progeny will be 



Fig. 37. — Plate showing feather patterns; a, A wry-tail hen. Do not 

 breed from wry-tailed birds; 6, showing the fifth toe, which is character- 

 istic of the Dorking; c, lacing as required of the Dark Cornish; d, a double- 

 laced feather; e, a silver spangle; /, a stippled feather; g, a ticked feather; 

 h, a barred feather, as noted in the Barred Plymouth Rocks ;i', a feather 

 marking characteristic of the Partridge variety, as the Partridge Rocks; 

 j, a fully penciled feather. 



