22 | 
The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
strong yellow beak and legs, and a good sharp red eye. Those with a greyish eye are very subject 
to go blind, and this colour is an indication of a weak constitution, therefore should be avoided as 
breeding stock. Get plenty of feathers on the legs and feet; and avoid all flesh-coloured or white 
legs, or you will find that such are very apt to produce green and even black legs, which fault is a 
certain disqualification. Take also birds that are large, with good carriage and style. 
“ Hens should be large in frame, with a good neat head, strong yellow beak, good red eye, and 
brilliant wattles and deaf-ears ; broad body with plenty of fluff, and small tail, almost covered with 
the soft feathers that are round the tail, with a good cushion on the rump. 
“ I prefer to breed from birds that have moulted once ; but if obliged to breed from cockerels, 
should put hens with them two years old ; and if the other way, pullets with old cocks : and in 
selecting these should choose those with large frame and plenty of bone, so that we may expect to 
have good large chickens. This is another great point, when you have quality as well ; for to breed 
small birds, in Cochins, Brahmas, or Dorkings, is useless for exhibition ; therefore avoid breeding 
from small birds, and be very careful not to have those that are related in any way, if possible to 
avoid it. And as there is so much buying at exhibitions, it is as well to take the trouble to inquire 
in buying whose strain they are, for although you may think they cannot possibly be anything 
related to your own, they may have been bred from eggs purchased from the same source that 
your own stock or a portion of them have come from, or may have been claimed and resold several 
times ; so that it is sometimes very difficult to ascertain whether you are breeding from relations 
or not : and, if related, the progeny will, according to my experience, be sure to decrease in size, 
and in many cases, where you find birds small, if you could trace it out, you would find that 
relationship is the cause of it.* You will find that late hatching and overstocking your runs have 
just the same effect, and I would therefore strongly advise any one never to breed later than May, 
and never to overstock the ground ; as by breeding only a few, and attending well to them, you 
will in the end be far more successful, and will also get a better profit, with much less labour, 
besides keeping your stock free from disease. 
“Your next object, after you have reared your stock, is to keep them white ; and in order to 
accomplish this you must keep them as much from the powerful rays of the sun as possible, by 
providing shelter — either trees or covered runs. A good thickly-covered wood is very good ; but 
if you cannot avail yourself of this, you should run your cock birds under some kind of shelter, 
where the sun cannot get to them during the time that the rays are most powerful, after which 
you may let them out, and you will find that this will save your birds very much. The hens do not 
change colour so much as the cocks, so that you need not take the trouble with them. It is also 
necessary to take special care not to give the birds any substance for their dust-bath that is likely 
to soil their plumage to such an extent that washing will not restore it to its original whiteness, as 
there are some kinds of sand that are very red and will stain the plumage very much ; in fact so 
much that it scarcely ever gets to that beautiful clear white again that it originally was, even when 
you have washed the bird over and over again. I select therefore as white a sand, or small gravel 
* Regarding the evils of relationship, which are so insisted upon by the writer of these remarks, we have already expressed in 
the general portion of this work views which do not go to the same extent in condemning such breeding as those of Mr. Smith. But 
there is a reason for the condemnation here urged in the comparative fewness of White Cochin breeders, which causes all the stock 
in the country to be related more or less, and therefore aggravates the evils of any relationship so near as to amount to actual 
consanguinity. In the case of Malays this general relationship is still more true, and the evils of breeding from actually related 
birds are correspondingly still more directly felt by the breeder. Wherever the strains of a breed are limited, the arguments pressed 
oy Mr. Smith will more or less apply ; while in other cases their urgency is not so great, and may be modified by the other 
considerations to which we have before adverted. 
