230 
The Australasian Book of Poultry. 
breasted ; the thighs well-developed, and very muscular ; the legs well coupled— that is, set wide apart, and 
rather prominent ; the shanks long, round, straight, and strong, not flat-shinned, or square, as this is an 
evident sign of weakness ; the legs beautifully and evenly scaled, and the scales to fit close like mail ; the 
feet and toes straight and sound, and well spread out on the ground ; the hind toe a good length, set low on 
the ground, and exactly opposite the middle toe. If the hind toe is too short, or pointing forwards, the bird 
is duck-footed — a great disfigurement, and, if very bad, a disqualification for the Show pen. The breast 
should be firm on handling, the sides of the body of concave form, the wings short, deep, and well curved, 
fitting closely to the body, not carried over the back. The tail must be small, closed up, and carried at a 
slight elevation, a good whip tail being desired in both cock and hen. The cock's sickle feathers should be 
fine, narrow, and short ; the eyes should be large, bold, fiery, and prominent, and of a bright red colour, 
with the exception of Brown-Reds and Birchens, whose eyes should be as dark as possible ; the skin of face 
and throat should be of fine texture, and the comb should be small, neat, thin, well serrated, erect, and 
perfectly straight ; the ear-lobes should be small, and quite free from white. 
"In describing colour, I will take the Black Rcd first. A cock of this colour should be the brightest 
red in face, throat, lobes, and top of head ; beak, dark horn colour ; the eyes clear, full, rich bright red (not 
brown, yellow, or pearly) ; neck hackle, bright light orange red to the points ; the back and shoulder coverts, 
bright crimson ; the saddle hackle, light orange to match the neck ; the wing-butts should be black ; the 
back, wing-bows, and shoulder-coverts, crimson ; wing-bars, steel-blue ; flight-coverts, clear bay or chestnut ; 
breast and thighs, blue-black ; belly, black, free from rusty, mossy, or brown feathers ; tail, glossy blue- 
black ; legs and feet, willow or olive. 
" A cock of this colour will breed cockerels like himself, though his pullets arc almost certain to come 
with foxy or rusty markings on the wings, and too pale in breast for the Show pen, but these same pullets are 
of great value for breeding bright-coloured cockerels from. 
"To breed Black-Red pullets for exhibition it is better to use a cock which is a more uniform shade of 
red or orange throughout, though this colour would have little chance of winning in the Show pen unless a 
poor lot were exhibited. 
" The Show Black-Red hen should match the cock in colour of eyes, beak, legs, and feet, and be 
perfectly red in face, wattles, ear-lobes, and comb. The head feathers should be golden. The neck hackle 
feathers should have well-defined black stripes each side of the shaft, the margin or edge of the feathers all 
round being of a bright golden colour. The back and wings and outer feathers of tail should be of one even 
shade, a light brownish drab, each feather being minutely and evenly pencilled all over with black. This 
gives a plain brown appearance a few yards distant. Coarse pencilling, or any red, foxy, rusty, or shafty 
feathers are very objectionable (though hens of this latter description are generally more stylish, and harder- 
feathered than the Standard Coloured hens ; they are, in fact, the cockerel strain of Black-Reds). The 
tail should be black, but the outer top feathers should be brown, pencilled the same as the body colour ; 
the throat should be a light salmon colour ; the breast, a bright salmon red, the shafts of the feathers being a 
shade lighter in colour, and the breast colour gradually running off to a grey or ashy shade on the thighs 
and under-parts. This is the recognised Standard colour of the Show hen, and a hen of this description will 
breed correct coloured cockerels if mated to a bird which is perfectly sound and bright in colour. 
"The Brown-Red cock should have a dark gipsy or purplish face (the darker the better), eyes as black 
as possible, wattles dark red, beak the blackest horn colour, the legs, feet, and toe-nails the darkest bronze 
(the darker the better), head and neck hackles lemon or bright orange, striped with black, each feather 
having a lemon or orange margin and shaft; back, wing-bows, and shoulder-coverts lemon or orange, rich and 
bright in colour ; saddle hackles the same colour, striped with black (the accuracy with which good birds 
are marked is astonishing) ; breast rich black, each feather having lemon or orange coloured shaft and 
margin. The lacing may come down on to the thighs ; the rest of the plumage should be as lustrous and 
bright a green-black as possible, excepting the under-feather, which should be a duller black. 
