372 
The Australasian Book of Poultry. 
faults, and an evident sign of weakness, and one strongly hereditary. The scales on the legs and toes small, 
and close-fitting ; the feet and toes sound, the toes long, straight, and well spread out on the ground, the 
hind toes a good length, scl on low, and exactly opposite the middle toe. This gives a good foothold. In 
breeding Game Bantams, the hind toes of the breeding stock should always be given careful consideration, 
as any fault, bar being caused by accident, is sure to be reproduced in the progeny, often in an aggravated 
form. The breast .should be firm and full, not soft or pappy. The sides of the body, well rounded ; the 
wings short and well curved, closely tucked up, and clipping the body tightly. If carried over the back, 
this is called goose-winged ; or if dropping down on the thighs, these are both serious faults, and should he 
stamped out. Many Game Bantams are far too long in wings, and flat on the sides — two faults to be 
avoided. The tail must be small, the feathers carried tightly together, and at a very slight elevation. When 
seen in perfection, the true tail has the appearance of being composed of two feathers, and is known as whip 
tail — a point greatly to be desired. The tail proper, or true tail (of both cock and hen) should be composed of 
fourteen feathers. They should be narrow and short. The cock's sickles and secondary sickles should be as fine 
and narrow as possible, thus giving the bird a smart and well-finished appearance ; and as a noticeable fact, 
the finer and closer the tail is carried, the better the bird is throughout. The eyes should be large, bold, 
prominent, and fiery-looking. In the Brown-Reds and Birchens, the eyes should be as dark as possible, the 
more nearly black the better ; the other colours should have bright ruby-red eyes. The skin of the face and 
throat should be thin, and fine in texture ; the comb thin, small, straight, erect, and perfectly serrated ; small 
ear-lobes, quite free from white ; and small, thin wattles, very fine in texture. Hardness of flesh and feather 
is desirable in all Game Bantams. This can, in a great measure, be attained by feeding ; but careful 
breeding is far and away the best means to secure this end. It is especially necessary that the stock cock 
used should excel in this point ; but this hardness is mostly accompanied with a deficiency of colour, the 
hardest-feathered birds being, as a rule, too dark. The course to pursue in this case is to mate him with 
hens or pullets lighter in colour than the Standard colour of the Show hens, by this means producing bright- 
coloured chickens, fit to win in the Show pen. Thus, it will be often noticed the best stock bird on either 
side would not be able to win in close competition, and frequently, again, a Cup zviiiner would be second rate 
as a stock bird. 
In size, Game Bantams should weigh, when in hard, top, Shoiv condition, one-fifth the weight of the 
large Game ; but the best test for size is the eye, and if the birds are tight, close, and short in feather, the 
more they weigh, if they took small eiioug^h, the better. A loose-feathered, clumsy bird may actually iveigh 
less than a high-class specimen, but 7vould look half as lirge again. 
Colour is the next important consideration, and as this feature counts at least one-fiflh of the total points 
in a perfect bird, much depends on obtaining this as near perfection as possible. 
BLACK-BREASTED-RED GAME BANTAMS. 
The Black-Red cock should be bright red in face, throat, and top of head (and if undubbed, the comb); 
the beak, dark horn colour ; the eyes, clear, full, bright, ruby-red ; the neck hackles, clear orange, or light 
orange-red; the back wing-bows and shoulder coverts, bright crimson i^but rich orange-red is allowable); the 
saddle hackles, orange, to match the neck; the wing-butts, black; wing-bars, steel-blue; the secondaries, rich 
chestnut, or clear bay ; breast and thighs, bluish-black ; belly, black, quite free from grey or rusty feathers ; 
the tail, glossy blue-black ; the legs and feet, willow or olive. This is the correct colour for the Show pen, 
and if mated to hens lighter in colour than the Standard-coloured hens, will breed cockerels like himself, 
though the pullets so bred will come pale in breast, and rusty on the sides of the wings. These pullets are, 
again, invaluable for breeding cockerels from, and are, in fact, the cockerel-breeding strain of Black-Reds. 
On the other hand, to breed Show Black-Red pullets from Standard-coloured hens, a cock must be used that 
is of a more even shape of red throughout his top colour, and if he has a rusty feather or two in breast and 
under the wings this is a good feature for breeding pullets, though a bird of this description would not be 
able to win in close competition. 
