Guide for Mating and Breeding Exhibition Poultry, 
93 
In selecting a bird to cross into a strain, one should be chosen which excelled in one or more points in 
which the home strain may be slightly deficient, and even if developed to an exaggerated degree in these 
points so much the better. 
Once that the birds in the breeding pens have been properly mated, they should not be interfered with, 
such as by introducing a strange hen, as this leads to discord and disappointment. This should be avoided, 
as to obtain anything like a fair percentage of healthy vigorous chickens immunity from interruption should 
be secured. Birds once selected for the breeding pen should never, under any circumstances, be sent to 
Shows, this often disarranging their systems for some time after, and it is futile to expect fair results from 
birds so upset. The higher the state of health and vigor of the brood stock the more vigorous and 
creditable will their chickens turn out, and as these considerations are most weighty, should always be 
borne in mind by the would-be breeder and exhibitor of high-class Poultry. 
Breeding for Colour Points, 
To produce specimens of any breed right up to the highest standard of excellence in colour points it is 
absolutely essential to fully understand how to mate them properly, though to breed wholly black or white 
fowls does not offer such obstacles as breeding those in which three or more colours are in combination. In 
the production of parti-coloured plumage in Poultry, Nature utilises at least five colours — red, black, yellow, 
blue, and white, though the last mentioned can scarcely be classed as a colour, being actually an absence of 
pigment colour, which is productive of albinism, so need not be taken into consideration in tracing back the 
progenitors of our present-day Poultry. The primary colours chiefly found are black and red, and the 
secondary colours blue and yellow. The former exist in themselves, the latter being produced by a combi- 
nation of two or more primary colours. Blue, for instance, as in the ground colour of the Andalusian, or 
Barred Plymouth Rock, being a combination of black and white, and yellow or buff a combination of white 
and red, so that in fowls in which the colours are black and red, as in the Game Fowl (black-breasted red), 
Brown Leghorn, and Partridge Cochin Cocks, not nearly so much difficulty is experienced in breeding those 
varieties to colour points as in other mixed colour breeds or in sub-varieties, such as the Laced Breasted 
Brown Red, Pile or Duckwing Game, Pile, Buff, Uuckwing or Cuckoo Leghorns, or Buff Cochins. Most of 
our latter-day varieties have been produced by the crossing of the different colours — the Pile Game Fowl and 
Pile Leghorn being strongly marked instances. In the Black-breasted Red Game, Partridge Cochin, and 
Brown Leghorn Cocks the black is confined to the breast, under parts, wingbar and tail, the red being found 
on the neck, shoulders and back, and as long as these colours confine themselves to the parts mentioned, 
they exist harmoniously. Immediately a cross is used, say with a white hen, the pigments are at once 
brought into conflict, in some instances one wholly taking the place of the other, the black being destroyed 
by the white, but the red being only more or less affected. Again, this characteristic conflict of the colours 
is even more strongly marked in the production of the Silver Duckwing Leghorn, Silver Duckwing Game 
Fowl, and the Silver Grey Dorking, the cocks of these varieties being the opposite marking of a Black Red 
to a Pile, leaving the black entirely intact, and substituting white on the parts occupied by the red. 
The production of the Silver Grey marking in any of the varieties mentioned can safely be attributed to 
the black being brought into direct conflict with the red. As an instance of this, which came under our own 
personal experience, in the case of crossing a Black Red Malay Cock with a Black Australian Game Hen, 
some of the cockerels produced from this cross turned out fair Silver Greys in markings, not one approaching 
the Black Red in top colour. At times the absorption of one colour into the other takes some little time, 
and shows itself rather more prominently than desired ; but, on the other hand, when fully absorbed, great 
dependence may be placed on the persistence of the predominant colour to perpetuate its like. This applies 
most strongly to the white top colour when definitely fixed. As an instance of the persistency of this 
marking, some years back we introduced a Silver Grey cross into our Brown Red Game to obtain a paler 
lemon or golden tint on the neck, shoulders and back of our Brown Red Cockerels. For some seasons the 
Cockerels all came white hackled and white-backed, though black on the secondaries, and even to this day 
