Breeding P artridge Cochins. 
221 
different system ; but the following rules embody the best and most successful experience we have 
been able to gather, besides conforming — so far as can be — to our own experience in the analogous 
case of the similarly pencilled Brahma. On the whole we are perhaps most indebted for the rules 
here given to information gathered from the strain of Mr. Crossley, of Halifax, and especially from 
Mr. J. Wadsworth, a gentleman under whose advice most of these birds have for years been mated, 
though he does not himself exhibit at shows. We have also obtained corroboration from other 
skilled breeders who do not wish their names to appear. 
In breeding cockerels, then (it is very necessary in this breed to match up separate pens for 
breeding the different sexes), a cock should be selected which, in addition to presenting the ordinary 
Cochin characters, has a really black breast, fluff, and leg-feather, with hackles of a rich red striped 
with dense black. The hackle behind the neck may approach to orange red, but towards the throat 
in front should be very dark. Saddle-hackles ought to be nearly the same colour, but need not 
be quite so dark. The shaft of the feather showing as a thin cream-coloured line in the hackle 
will not much matter, but the web of the hackle should be jet - black quite up to the stem or shaft. 
The hens to mate with such a cock should be of a very deep and rich brown ground-colour, 
almost the colour of roasted coffee, and with rich reddish-orange hackles, the markings on her 
feathers resembling those in the plate (Fig. 60), which represent very accurately the markings of a 
hen which has bred some of the best cockerels ever exhibited. The distinguishing characteristic 
of these feathers is that the pencilling, though very small and minute, is close, almost black in 
colour, and nearly covers the ground, making a very dark and rather dull-looking hen. In such 
hens the shaft of the feather usually shows slightly, as in the plate ; but this is of very little 
consequence in breeding cocks, though it will be so much the better if all streak be absent. The 
longer secondary quills, as shown in the plate, will be nearly black, and the cushion-feathers are 
often scarcely distinguishable from black ; but even in that case a lacing of the ground-colour 
(perhaps rather paler or nearly gold-colour in this part), should extend quite round the feather, as 
shown ; for if it does not there will be a want of brightness in the cockerels produced. From 
such mating, at least after a year or two’s breeding, a very large proportion of cockerels will 
be fit to show, though for a little while after commencing not much certainty can be expected. 
We should advise great care in commencing any strain of Partridge Cochins to avoid white 
in the cock’s tail, which in this breed is particularly difficult to breed out when once it has 
obtained a footing. 
For breeding pullets, on the contrary, quite a different type of bird will be necessary. The 
plate (Fig. 61) shows very accurately the markings to be sought in the hen ; the breast-feathers 
particularly being very solidly and accurately pencilled with several perfect semicircles or 
crescentic markings, so thickly as to nearly approach the general effect over the rest of the body. 
The other feathers will show much the same character, and the whole marking should be rather 
large and broad, and very intense in colour, the shaft of the feather showing if possible not at all. 
The hen’s hackle may vary : if she be a show bird, there should be a solid stripe down each 
feather ; but as far as breeding is concerned, some of the very best marked pullets are produced 
from birds whose hackles are somewhat pencilled , as in the second hackle-feather of Fig. 61. 
The ground or margin-colour of the hackle in either case should be a rich bright gold-colour, and 
the dark marking should reach well over the top of the head. The ground-colour over the rest of 
the body will be rather a light brown, approaching buff, but totally free from any bright yellow * , 
which is objectionable. The cock to mate with these hens should have a reddish orange, rather 
than red, hackle, densely striped with black ; and a few brown spots on his fluff or even breast will 
be little injury to him as a pullet-breeder. Many people would suppose that by mating such birds 
