Breeding Black Mottles. 
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One of the commonest faults is a bad colour, it being rare to see a true raven black through 
the quills of the tail and flights, which are apt to show rather a brown tinge. This is often caused 
by breeders crossing a Kite hen with a Mottled cock, which is done for three objects. The first is 
that Kite hens are generally much more plentiful and cheap than really good Mottles ; next, 
they are generally free from that troublesome fault of the white blaze on the face ; and, thirdly, 
they are almost always much better in head, eye, and beak properties, and hence are used to obtain 
a better class of head. As a rule, the only indications in the progeny of the Kite cross are on the 
top of the head and in the quills of the flights and tail, which instead of glossy black are of a 
brown or bronzy colour. If the Kite hen be of the proper colour, showing little of the bronze (and 
these dull Kites are generally used, being more plentiful than the good bronzy Kites so useful in 
Almond breeding), it is astonishing how little the cross really shows ; and the signs of it on the 
head at least are very often disguised by dressing up the head with oil and lampblack, caustic, ink, 
or other means, which lasts for some days, after which the natural colour reappears. It is however 
when, not knowing of the cross, such a bird is bred again to a Kite hen, that the evil is found, as 
the Kite blood now preponderating, the colour becomes very bad, producing mere Kite Mottles, or 
Splashes, or Grizzles, in many cases. The Kite cross, therefore, only answers, and should only be 
used, when employed with a purely-bred Mottle. 
The greatest difficulty, as we have already hinted, in breeding Black Mottles, even more than 
Reds or Yellows, is to get rid of the foul marking on the forehead ; and we will endeavour to state 
clearly how we would advise any one to proceed. It is little use in this particular case making 
any inquiry about the good or bad qualities of a strain, since any birds are scarce, and no one will 
admit that his are not good, while if they are, there will be plenty of other folk to depreciate them, 
simply because better than their own. In this case we would go by appearances, and take such 
birds as we describe wherever or from whomsoever they were to be got. First ot all we would 
purchase the very best Black Mottle cock we could afford or could procure, especially as free 
as possible from blaze on the forehead, but quite free no one must expect. If also quite free from 
Kite colour on the forehead, so much the better ; but even if it should show the mark of the Kite 
there, provided it were well marked as regards mottling, we would not discard it if no better 
offered. Such a bird we would breed in the first place to a raven black hen, not being particular 
as to how she was bred, provided only she was good in colour, and fine in the beak and beak- 
wattle. If good in head and carriage so much the better. We would breed two or three nests 
from this pair ; and if out of these there were no birds to give us a little satisfaction, we would dis- 
match the pair, and put the same cock to another deep black hen, or if we could not get such, to a 
Mottle hen decidedly dark as regarded marking, and of course free from any Kite colour on the 
head ; because, as we have said, to breed two birds with any Kite taint together is ruin to the Black. 
We do not, in fact, recommend a bird so bred at all, but merely state how such stock may 
be utilised, and their faults bred out again, because such are much more easily to be had, and at a 
cheaper rate, while by careful breeding for two seasons, commencing as we have said with a real 
Black, pure Mottles may be established from them. 
If among the progeny of this first pair there was a young cock tolerably well mottled, and free 
or nearly free from blaze, we would match him to a Black Mottle hen of the true colour ; or if 
such could not be procured, or was not within the breeder’s means, then to another Black hen, but 
this time making sure she was bred from Mottles. But the correct match is decidedly a Mottle, 
because the young cock, being already half-bred Black, if matched to Black again would be likely 
to produce chiefly Blacks. Then, as regards the rest of the progeny, which perhaps might not 
be quite free from Kite marking, we would select the best of them, and breed with other Black 
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