292 
The Australasian Book of Poultry. 
Breeding and Management. 
"Both when starting to breed Andalusians, and whenever it may be desired to add any to the yards, it 
is absolutely necessary not only to seek a reliable source from which to obtain what is wanted, but also to 
get full particulars as to the breeding of the stock that has produced the birds or eggs to be bought, and 
this whether the object be to secure good layers or to breed for Exhibition. No doubt this is more or less 
true in the case of all varieties ; but the remarks that follow on mating will, I think, show how all-important 
it is with regard to Andalusians. 
" If the start be made with eggs, there must always be some uncertainty as to the result. Success will 
depend on the quality of the parents, and the skill with which they have been mated ; and the beginner 
should buy from a well-known breeder, who has proved that he has not only good stock birds, but also 
this skill in mating, by having himself bred others equally good, rather than from a man just because he 
has won at some Show, whose birds may not have been bred by himself, and may not have been properly 
mated. There is no greater mistake, fostered though it be by many breeders who advertise that they have 
purchased the winners at such and such Shows and have them in their breeding pens, than to suppose that 
the chance mating of winners will produce winners. If the first purchase be birds — which is the better, 
though more expensive course — the rules which follow should be borne in mind when selecting them. 
" M.\TING. — The first rule in mating Andalusians is undoubtedly that none but Blues must be put in 
the breeding pens, and that these must have been bred from Blues only for as many generations back as can 
be traced. That this rule has not always been kept in the past is certain, and that we owe a good deal to a 
Minorca, and probably to a Langshan, cross ; but in the future it should be rigidly ahered to, as it is only 
in this way that ' off-colour chickens ' will become a rarity instead of a too common occurrence, as at 
present. 
" As the second rule, and next in importance, I would place judicious in-breeding. By this I mean that 
there should always be the same strain of blood in all the birds in a breeding pen. The closest relationship 
— brother and sister, father and daughter, mother and son— may even be used occasionally with excellent 
results, but this should not be continued in the next generation ; and, speaking generally, while keeping to 
the same blood such close connections should be avoided. If, in the second season after starting, the cock 
be mated with the pullets, and a cockerel with the hens, the next year there will be quite enough change of 
blood without going off the premises. The best way to introduce new blood, if it is desired to do so, is to 
get a hen of the strain selected and put her in one of the pens, and mark her chickens carefully, and, if 
they prove satisfactory, use them in their turn ; a strange cock may destroy the value of a whole pen, 
whereas if the chickens from the new hen turn out badly there is little harm done— there are always the 
others that can be relied on. It is also possible sometimes to get a cockerel which has been bred from 
a bird sold, and which, therefore, is of the half-blood, and such a one may be mated without fear to the 
old stock hens if he suits them in other respects. This rule is founded on the well-known fact that the 
mixture of unrelated blood has a strong tendency to cause reversion to original types, and in Andalusians 
the effect of such a course is to produce a large proportion of ' off-coloured ' chickens. 
"The third rule is that the male bird must be selected with a view to the ' Fancy' points, and the 
female to the size and shape which it is desired their offspring shall possess, as these are the matters in 
which experience has proved that the sexes are respectively prepotent. 
" The fourth and last rule is that the birds must be mated on the principle of compensation. Possibly, 
if an absolutely perfect cock and an absolutely perfect hen, both of the purest lineage, and related in some 
degree to each other, were mated together, some at least of their progeny would be equal to their parents, but 
absolute perfection has not yet been attained, and one bird fails in this point and another in that ; good, 
indeed, are such as have only one fault. The breeder must, therefore, put together birds which will correct 
each other, or, in other words, he must mate one that is good in all but some point or points with others 
that are particularly good in that respect. These will almost certainly not be Show birds in either case, for 
