LAWS GOVERNING THE BREEDING 
of fluff. Such a bird should be discarded as a 
breeder. The brown tinge sometimes seen in 
summer just before and during moult should not be 
confounded with the above; search for this trouble 
in mid-winter or just before the breeding season. 
One proof that in and line breeding will eradi- 
cate the evil of purple barring is found in that old 
Chinese breed, the Black Langshan. Ihave hand- 
led many hundreds of them in the last ten years. 
Their remarkable freedom from purple barring in 
any and all strains, under any and all conditions, 
and the persistent disfiguring purple barring so 
prevalent on newer breeds of black fowls lead me 
to these positive conclusions. The bronze over- 
cast before mentioned, if found on a white-skin 
black fowl, indicates an infusion of yellow skin 
blood and a careful survey of the bird in question 
will show traces of yellow in skin and legs or bot- 
toms of feet. White or gray feathers in flights or 
tails of black breeds are not so much indications of 
foreign blood as they are of imperfect moult, injury 
or lack of vitality. Lack of shade, negligence or ill 
health contribute to accentuate purple barring or 
sheen but never produce it to any great extent 
on black fowls of long pedigree. Red feathers 
found in black birds are not signs of impurity in 
any and all black breeds; for instance, the Black 
Sumatra, one of the very purest of black breeds 
and a very old one, produces many birds with red 
feathers in black plumage. Thechicks of mostblack 
breeds at hatch are black and white in about equal 
proportion, which colors they retain until feathered. 
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