Plymouth Rocks. 
189 
which are called Andalusians nowadays, and I believe the old attractive type were quite as good at filling the 
egg basket as the repellent type fashionable to-day. Some breeders are trying very hard, hotli Ijy precept and 
example, to force Rocks into this wrong track too, and have so long been breedin.L;- Mediterranean t\pes, 
that they cannot imagine a Rock correct unless he is a corky, narrow, erect-tailed, sloping-backed stilt. Now, 
this has to be prevented, and if my influence has any weight, a few years will suffice to clear these weeds out 
altogether. I spent a few years in hunting Leghorn type out of whites, and the type of the white chickens 
shown at Melbourne and Williamstown Shows last season prove that my time was not wasted. AVhatever the 
supporters of the Mediterranean type say to the contrary, the true type of Rock will lay just as many eggs in 
any season, and more in the winter, than the narrow-backed, shallow-chested, Leghorn-tailed kind, and as a 
table Fowl there is no comparison whatever. 
" Just to instance what the proper type will do in the way of egg-producing, I will quote two cases that I 
remember on the spur of the moment without hunting ui) further records. The first was with old ' Champion 
Pet ' as a pullet. I started taking her record about the end of August, '90, though s!ie had been laying for 
some weeks previously, and by the autumn, when she started to moult, she had laid between 150 and 160 
eggs without a break, and she was a great big, broad hen, weighing 12 lbs. in condition, and was the 
champion hen of the colony for two years. The other instance was the white pullet, ' Dulce,' a very short- 
legged one, out of that crack Show hen, ' Sweetie,' by Champion ' Alick Dick.' This pullet Mr. H. 
Treganowan purchased at my clearing sale of Whites in June, 1896, and that gentleman writes me that she 
laid 100 eggs in 118 consecutive days, and then was killed by an accident. The above records are from 
birds of the correct type, and would be hard to excel by any other breed. 
" Plumage^ 25 Points. — This section ranks next in importance to type. Some would give it the 
preference, but this is radically wrong, as a Barred Rock cock, as regards colour, is a wonderfully impressive 
fellow, and, never mind what breed and colour of hens are placed with him, fully 75 per cent, of the 
chickens will come out barred like their sire, and most probably many with the correct shade of colour, 
though in shape and type they are anything and everything but Rocks. Therefore, before we go any further 
into the subject of plumage, I cannot impress the fact too forcibly on all my readers that, never mind how 
beautifully marked and true to colour a bird may be, it cannot be a good Rock unless following true Rock type. 
At the 1894 Intercolonial Show in an adjacent Colony a big hen was shown of magnificent colour and markings 
throughout, with rich yellow legs and of splendid bone, but without a scintilla of Rock type, in fact almost a 
Malay. Somehow the Judge got on to her going for plumage in preference to type, and she came out first in 
a grand class, beating Messrs. Franklin Bros.' wonderful champion (bred by Mrs. S. Tremlett), certainly the best 
Show hen ever seen in Australia, and never before beaten. All the Poultry papers quickly called attention 
to the mistake ; and in some ways this error, I believe, actually did good in the long run, as it was a splendid 
advertisement of the absolute necessity of type being recognised before plumage, all the critics for once seeing 
eye to eye. At the same Show the following year I happened to wield the stick, and in a weak class I had 
to pass the same hen clean by as a Barred Malay ; certainly I had never seen a better coloured one, and but 
very few worse in type. In both the Show and breeding pen size, bone, constitution, and symmetry 
(otherwise type) must be the first considerations, and plumage follows. A barred bird of the correct shades 
of colour and evenly marked is indeed a beautiful picture. Basalt blue, barred with ash or French grey, or 
bands of light steel blue, is the best way of describing the proper plumage. The commonest faults in colour 
Sixe black barred with zvhitc in both sexes; brownish, dead, sooty barrings, more especially in hens, and 
decided brassy hackles and backs in cocks ; whole or partially white or black feathers in the tails of the 
males, and white flights in both sexes. The black and white barring is the hardest of these to deal with, simply 
because so many, in ignorance or colour bUndness, consider it the right shade. Black and white barrings have 
always been written down by all authorities, and they are no easier to breed than the true blue birds, so why 
so many breeders keep popping up at Shows with these black and white specimens is difficult to understand ; 
but in all probability, the misunderstanding has arisen from the craze of a few years ago, both in England and in 
this country, for dark birds. Prior to this period many cocks were shown (though grand, big, typical fellows 
