Colour of Dragoons. 
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very best strain of Reds. Yellows cannot improve Reds, but Reds are very useful in improving 
Yellows. They should have light-coloured wattles and flesh-coloured beaks. Both Reds and 
Yellows are free breeders and of good constitution. 
“ Blues seem to carry off the palm in respect to number of admirers ; simply, I think, because 
they arc more easily bred, and because they breed truer to markings than the other varieties ; and 
as long as this is the case I have found it is sufficient to please a great many so-called Dragoon 
fanciers. Although the Blue classes are very large, it is surprising how few really Blue Dragoons 
are shown. Some are a shade lighter on the rump, some on the thighs or breast; and but few 
possess the same shade throughout back, belly, thighs, and rump, which is so essential in a Blue 
Dragoon. The beak-wattle should be light in colour, and powdery ; the eye-wattle should be of a 
darker shade, and the inside, next the pupil, should be black ; the pupil should be bright red or 
orange. The bars, if jet-black and well defined, do not, at least in my opinion, matter whether 
broad or narrow. The neck of this variety should be darker and more lustrous than the other 
portions of the body, with the beak black and ebony-like. You cannot cross any other colour with 
Blues with the effect of improving the Blues. Blacks are, I know, being used to keep up the size, 
but I think this is a great mistake, as there are plenty of large Blues to cross with without going 
to Blacks, which, if once introduced, spoil your whole strain. A two-year-old hen to a young cock 
will breed better birds than two young ones mated together. I would also remark that early- 
hatched birds, say those in March to May, are always much longer and better in feather than those 
hatched later ; and on no account would I advise breeding after July, as the young birds are never 
so good or strong after that ; besides, it gives the old birds a so much better chance to get through 
the moult. I have been surprised to find at various shows a great many Blues with the beak- 
wattle more on one side than the other. I cannot say the reason of this, whether it is from injury, 
or whether caused by the in-and-in breeding which I know some breeders to have followed, but 
certainly it is so, and it completely spoils the handsome appearance of the most perfect bird in 
other respects. 
“Silvers should have dark bars — the darker the better — black if possible. The body should be 
white and silver-like, not of that creamy colour which follows the brown bar ; the flights, tail, and 
neck a shade darker. The breast should be free from the copper tinge which is seen on so many 
specimens. The eye should be orange. I strongly object to a pearl or light-coloured eye. The 
beak should be flesh-coloured, and free from any dark stain. In breeding Silvers, I have invariably 
found that a young Blue cock paired to an old Silver hen will produce nearly all cocks. This is a 
great point, as all Silver breeders complain of the greater proportion of hens which they breed. 
One fancier, who in one season had bred eighteen Silver hens without a single cock, on my recom- 
mendation tried the above, and the following season bred three-fourths cocks. Every second 
generation Silvers should be crossed with Blues, or you lose the beautiful silver body, and the bar 
becomes lighter in colour. To select Blues for crossing do not choose those with light rumps and 
light-coloured beaks. This I know is the popular idea, and which nearly all the Silver breeders 
have been shipwrecked on, but it is wrong. Most of those birds have already descended, on one 
side or another, from Silvers, and it is more than probable from brown-barred Silvers ; so to be 
certain, get the cross yourself. Choose therefore the best coloured young Blue Dragoon with jet- 
black bars you can get, and mate him to a Silver hen not less than three years old ; the Blues 
produced from this cross pair again to Silvers, taking care that they are of a different strain and 
of different ages. You will then have a lot of Silvers which will oreed for two generations without 
any further need of the Blue cross. To go on breeding the Silvers together after that would end 
in those nondescripts called Brown Bars. It is the same with almost any of the colours when 
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