Cochins. 
141 
mating there will be some of both sexes excellent in colour, and others tending towards the Lemon or paler 
colours. On no account breed from birds on both sides that are inclined to mahogany colour, as the stock 
bred from them are almost certain to show ticks of black in hackle, back, and leg feathers. 
Partridge Cochins. 
The Partridge cock should be a rich orange red in head and hackle and saddle hackle, each feather 
having a bold black stripe extending down the centre of the feather. The back, wing-bow, and shoulder 
coverts are of a bright deep maroon ; the wing-bar, glossy greenish-black ; the wing secondaries, bay on the 
outer web, and black on the inner, with a black spot on the tip of each feather, forming a stripe from the 
upper side of the wing-bar to the end of the wing ; the primaries black, with a slight edging of bay, to the 
two or three lower feathers. The breast, thighs, under-parts, tail, and leg feathering should be a lustrous 
black ; the shanks and feet of a dusky yellow shade. The Partridge hens to match should have rich golden- 
coloured hackles, each feather being distinctly striped with black down the centre, the rest of the ground 
colour of the plumage a light brown, pencilled all over, each feather with crescentic markings of darker brown 
following the shape of the feather, as in the dark Brahma hen. This marking should extend right up to the 
throat, and in a good hen this pencilling extends all over the leg-feathering also. Care must be taken in not 
breeding from hens that are pale or clayey-looking in breast, or that are destitute of pencilling on the 
I. — Breast. 2.— Cushion, 
Fig. 66. — Feathers of Partridge Cochin Flen for Breeding Cockerels. 
feathers. In this variety it is, however, essential to mate up separate breeding pens for the production of the 
sexes up to Show form. To breed cockerels, a cock should be selected sound black in breast, fluff, and 
leg feather, with hackles of a rich red, striped as described, the colour of the hackle towards the throat 
being very dark red, noting well that the web of the feather is jet black right up to the shafts. The hens 
to mate with a bird of this description should be a very rich brown ground colour, the pencilling on the 
feathers being very minute and close, so as to appear almost wholly black — (Fig. 66) — but with a slight 
lacing of the lighter ground colour showing right round the extremities of the feathers on back and cushion. 
From this plan of mating the cockerels will be produced bright and sound in colour, the pullets, however, 
running far too dark for the Show pen, but of great value, again, for cockerel breeding. 
To breed pullets, the cock should have a reddish orange hackle, densely striped with black, and if 
possessed of a few brown spots on breast and fluff will be an advantage. He should be mated with Standard 
marked hens as described — (Fig. 67) — that is, of a light brown ground colour, pencilled all over with 
crescentic markings of a darker brown, and with very little, if any, shafts of the feathers showing prominently. 
The pullets from this mating will turn out excellent, and the cockerels, though unfit for showing, make the 
best of pullet breeders for following years. 
