Relative Value of Points of Excellence. 
85 
ridiculous and inexorable demands of the Show pen. We read of the Indian Game Fowl being suggested as 
an excellent cross to improve the waning size of the Malay (thank goodness, the Malay has not been 
improved to such a degree that its chief virtues are sunk for Fancy Points). It would now be nearer the 
mark to go to the fountain head at once, and use the Malay to increase the size and table qualifications of 
the Show Cornish Indian Game Fowl, which are gradually being sacrificed for purely ornamental Points of 
excellence. 
To many of our readers our suggestions may appear too advanced ; but the next ten years will tell a 
different tale, as the purchasing public now are awakening to the fact that purely Fancy Fowls have their 
merits in giving opportunity to exhibitors to individually distinguish themselves in perfecting by selection and 
preference " Fancy Points," but which for their purpose are best left alone. 
The changeable decisions of Judges have also much to answer for, in many instances individual Judges 
fostering and encouraging points which are detrimental to the best interests of the breed, standards 
being quite ignored, and individual opinion substituted, which, of necessity, must be wrong. To illustrate 
fhis, a bird may win under a certain Judge at one Show, the same bird meeting the same competitors at the 
following Show under another Judge, who reverses the decision of the first one. This is a stumbling block 
difficult to remove under existing circumstances, one Judge, perhaps, basing the bird's excellence on Utility 
Points, and the other on Fancy Points. As the matter now stands, the awards at our Shows, in numerous 
instances, are no guide to the relative merits of the birds, but are, as remarked previously, merely individual 
opinion. This is most discouraging, a breeder often devoting years of study in perfecting his specimens to 
the Standards laid down for his guidance, the Judge, however, placing quite a different interpretation on the 
same Standard, or throwing it altogether on one side, awards the prize to his own special Fancy. 
At most of our large Shows separate classes are provided for adult specimens and young stock respec- 
tively of the different breeds, and what can be often noticed ? Birds of totally different types and colour 
heading their respective classes. To a keen observer the example is so forcible that the remark is frequently 
made, " Which of these is correct ? " Both cannot be. This has a tendency to hamper considerably the 
entrance of many new Fanciers to the ranks of Pure-bred Poultry breeders and exhibitors, and the only open 
and legitimate method to do away with this unfortunate system is to have separate classes for each breed, 
recognising them either as purely Fancy Fowls of that breed, or Utility specimens. Thus 
the relative value of the Points of excellence would be of some intrinsic worth, which, unfortunately, under 
existing conditions, cannot honestly be said, there being far too much encouragement given to Fancy Points 
in some breeds (which are considered as Utility Fowls), causing the salient features to be more or less 
sacrificed, with the natural consequence that they have ceased to be useful specimens of Poultry, and are 
ornamental only in the eyes of those who have improved them. 
The Points of excellence or perfection, which are given in the Standards issued, are invariably drawn up 
for the specific objects of improving and definitely fixing markings of the feathers, shape, colour, etc., the 
Utility qualities never in a single instance being considered, and the Standards of feather markings of breeds, 
other than those of wholly self-coloured breeds, are so arranged that it is impossible to breed birds of both 
sexes from the one pen of birds that will approach the ideal standard of excellence laid down for male and 
female, and to combat this it is compulsory to mate up distinct breeding pens to produce Cockerels and 
Pullets respectively. This is a matter for regret, as frequently a Cockerel of a given breed —for instance, a 
Brown Leghorn — though being nearly perfect according to the Standard for Cockerels, and a Pullet of the 
same variety, being equally as excellent in the Standard requirements for the Pullets, are really so opposite in 
their compositions, that if mated together (though both being nearly ideally perfect), would not produce 
chickens approaching either parent in the Fancy Points for which they were bred. By this system of 
breeding the sexes from different pens, and which it is compulsory to follow to attain perfection, or anything 
approaching it, in their respective classes, the birds become almost distinct varieties. As an example of our 
meaning, the Standard requires the Brown Leghorn Cockerel to be perfectly black in breast and underparts, 
and as bright in top colour as possible. Pullets bred from this bird would invariably fail in breast colour, 
