Breeding Barbs. 
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and difficult question of breeding for colour. It is a somewhat generally received axiom among 
breeders of all descriptions of stock that to a certain extent, ‘like breeds like,’ and this, no doubt, 
is nearly true with regard to breeding for colour, always providing you are breeding from a strain 
thoroughly established for colour. For many years I had a strain of Red Barbs, the individuals of 
which almost invariably bred one or both young ones with one or two white feathers in the tail, 
and always on the same side of the tail ; but they were good birds, and very valuable for crossing, 
as, when matched with Yellow, the white feathers very rarely re-appeared ; but as long as I bred 
individuals of the same family together they still showed the white feather, and I rather liked it , 
for I always knew I had a good stock bird, and many prize-winners can be traced back to this 
strain. There are few good sound-coloured Reds to be found, many of them running ashy on the 
rump, or grizzled in flight and tail ; and I must confess that I do not even now know how to 
eradicate this fault. I can improve Yellows with Reds, but do not know how to produce a perfect 
Red with any degree of certainty. For breeding Blacks I believe, as far as colour is concerned, 
no match is equal to two Blacks ; but as Dun hens are sometimes found very full and soft in eye, 
it is advisable to use them with Blacks, and a soft Dun may be matched to Yellow with good 
results if the Yellow is on the cock side ; still I would prefer breeding from two Yellows if both 
were sound in colour. Birds bred this way, however, are apt to run grizzly, and pale in flights 
and tail, so that I believe it necessary now and then to fortify Yellows by a cross of some other 
colour. I have had good birds bred from a Yellpw cock and Black hen, and on one occasion, 
* 
many years ago, I bred from a single pair of birds in one season every known colour of a Barb, 
viz., Black, Red, Yellow, White, and Dun. The cock was 4 Red of the strain I have previously 
referred to, the hen from a Yellow and Dun, but not a good-coloured bird in herself, and yet all 
the young were good and sound in colour. I once also bred 4 bird which was nearly blue, but did 
not admire it, and do not think it a desirable colour for a Barb. A }1 the usual colours harmonise 
well with the red eye-wattle, which the Blue would not. I believe I once recorded my opinion 
that a good Barb cannot be of a bad colour, and, for breeding purposes , I still hold the same view, 
and if I knew the pedigree of a bird, ever so bad in colour, would not for a moment hesitate to 
breed from it if it possessed the properties I required. I never meant to convey the impression, as 
some one suggested in one of our periodicals a short time ago, that a badly-coloured bird was 
equal to a good coloured one, and it was a piece of absurdity in the writer to attempt to father 
such an idea on me. Whites, as I have stated before, are not so numerous or good as they were a 
few years back, and yet, for a country fancier, they are a charming variety ; in towns, as with 
other white birds, they are not so suitable. I have seen a few Whites with pearl eyes, which 
I consider a great improvement. With regard to size I most decidedly advocate a somewhat 
small and neat bird, and give my ideas of what the relative proportions of a good bird should be, 
although, of course, it is impossible to lay down anything like a hard and fast line in this respect, 
but the following, I believe, to be pretty nearly right for a good specimen Weight, 13 ozs. to 
1 lb. ; length, beak to tip of tail, I2| inches to 14 inches ; inner edge of eye to tip of beak, 
| of an inch ; width of skull, a full inch to l| inch, measured between, not over the eye-wattles; 
diameter of eye-wattle, 1^ inch; length of limb, measured as Pouters, 4! inches to 4! inches. 
These dimensions would apply to cocks, and would be a little modified for hens, more especially 
in width of skull. I have no doubt that a few birds might be found to exceed these dimensions in 
head properties, but I consider the above a fair standard. 
Barbs are fairly good breeders and feeders, though sometimes a very good and promising young 
one will require a good deal of attention in the way of feeding by hand. The young Barb, when 
in the nest, gives a pretty sure indication of what sort of bird it will be at maturity. If the callow 
