Plymouth Rocks. 
183 
practice of breeding, I hope eventually to produce a Rock of true type, with i)lumage barred throughout with 
alternate bands of gold and black, or gold and grey. Some seven years have now been spent in this work, and 
without loss of either type or size, we have a beautiful bird with a golden ground colour, and rich green 
black markings. These markings are, however, at present in a very chaotic state, and (juitc out of hand, being 
diversified in splashes, ticks, scjuares, blotches, bars, and lacings ; but the fact that there arc already some 
feathers really barred with the desired colours almost from butt to tips is very encouraging, and strengthens 
the belief that I will eventually get what I am trying for. * Should I be successful 1 hope I will not be 
accused of presumption in prophesying that they will prove to be the king of Rocks, as in my humble opinion 
no handsomer fowl could exist than the ideal I aui working for, and the Fancy can depend upon me to give 
them the particulars of the lines I have worked on, once I feel sure my object has been achieved. 
" Breeding and Judging. 
" My purpose in discussing these two headings in the one chapter is that they are both so much 
dependent the one on the other that it will be saving needless repetition if we take them together. I don't 
intend to affirm that in order to be a competent judge a man must necessarily have been a successful breeder, 
but a Judge should have so much of the economy of the breed he judges in his knowledge as to know the 
weak and the strong points of a bird, both for the breeding as well as the Show pen. On the other hand, no 
one can expect to become a successful breeder till they are at least a pretty fair judge of the variety they 
keep, as a man must know exactly what he is breeding for to have anything like a chance of producing good 
ones often. It so happens that the veriest novice may sometimes breed the crack youngster of the year, but 
this is generally sheer luck, and cannot continue unless the beginner has made a close study of his breed for 
some time, and this is seldom the case. Unfortunately, in a large majority of cases, too early success often 
spoils the new breeder, and is in reality the cause of his early relinquishing the Fancy. To start with, the birds 
he buys his first year, by simple good luck, happen to nick exactly, and he comes out with the champion 
chicks his first season. This puts him up so much in the stirrups that he imagines at once he is ' -Boss 
Cocky' of the breed, and knows as much about them as any man in the land, but in a year or two his 
original pen gets broken up, and then ' he /don't know where he are.' He tries this strain and that strain, all 
aimlessly and without any system, and nothing at all will nick, and at last ' up goes the sponge,' and he leaves 
the Fancy in disgust. But the beginner wlio starts slowly, and only succeeds in breeding champions after 
several years of close study, generally proves a sta) er, and, by his practical experience, a valued help towards 
the improvement of the breed he takes up. 
" Right here, before I give the why and the wherefore of the Standard, I want to testify to the immensity 
of good done for the breed in Australia by the Plymouth Rock Club within the past few years. Commencing 
operations only as recently as '93, they have instructed the Judges handling the breed at all the big Shows to 
stick closely to the Standard. These instructions have in nearly every instance been conscientiously carried 
out, with the result that the improvement and general uniformity of the Rock classes the last three years have 
been something marvellous as compared with the preceding years, before the Club came into existence. 
Prior to this birds nearly a dead black in the density of their markings — being pencilled instead of barred — 
were winning ; and erect, big Leghorn tails and almost wholly white lobes were frequently let go by Judges 
as merely trivial defects, added to which, a stranger coming to Australia at that time would have thought for 
sure that we had gone in for a tailless breed of Rocks, as, walking down the cock and cockerel classes, simply 
a line of ' Cobs ' met the gaze, and a full tail or a sickle feather to be seen was a very rare occurrence. Judges 
had so let this plucking of tails slide, that breeders made no attempt to breed good-coloured tails, simply 
taking out every badly-marked feather, and showing the birds as more or less ' cobs.' I well remember the 
strong feeling engendered, the first year I took the Rock classes at Melbourne Show, for disqualifying a 
well-known winner from N.S.W. He was a big fellow, of splendid type, good colour, and great bone, but 
* Since writing tiie above, I liave bred a cockerel with more than half of his plumage golden— barred throughout, viz : hackles, breast, and back 
and I hope to let the public see him at this season's Shows. 
