THE POULTRY BOOK. 
149 
tills high authority, should he of a rich hlack down the middle of the feather, the 
entire length edged with bronze, each bronze edge as near one fourth the width of 
the feather as possible ; the more distinct the two colours and free from running 
into each other the better ; and the entire plumage of the Golden-pencilled hens, 
with the exception of the neck-hackle, which is pure golden bay, must have a deep 
golden bay ground, free from either lacing or mossing ; each feather, including tail 
feathers, being distinctly pencilled across with rich black ; the pencilling not to 
follow the outline of the feather, but to go straight across on each side of the 
shaft. The two colours distinct, well defined, and not shading or running into 
each other. 
Mr. Brent remarks, As a Golden cock will breed good hens wnth much less 
depth of under-colour than the Silvers, the argument in favour of their having 
bars on the wings and black inner webs to the quill feathers is not so imperative ; 
and the sickle feathers of the Golden cock may be bronzed all over without so 
much lessening his value as a stock bird.” 
It is my opinion,” continues this writer, that the inner tail feathers of both 
Golden and Silver pencilled cocks should be a deep unspotted black ; that the 
tail-coverts, or, as they are commonly called, the sickle-feathers, should be of 
a deep glossy black, with green and purple reflections, and finely edged or laced 
in the Golden with coppery brown or bronze, and in the Silver with greyish white. 
I am aware that this opinion is adverse to that of some of our judges and ex- 
hibitors, and that they consider a wholly bronzed or silvered tail of much 
importance ; but such theory is not borne out by the experience of the practical 
breeder. Numbers of instances might be quoted to show the fallacy of the bronzy 
tails. How often is it noticeable in the show-pens that the cocks with the most 
silvered or bronzed tails are matched with the worst-marked hens. At a late show 
I noticed two pens of magnificently marked Silver hens, better than which I never 
remember seeing, with a card above them which informed the public that the hens 
only were sold, but the cocks were not purchased ; nor were the pens noticed by 
the judges. Why ? because they had black tails. The sickle feathers were only 
edged, as I contend they ought to be ; and, moreover, they had the bars on the 
wings, so difficult a point to be obtained in this breed. By bars I do not mean a 
double row of moons or spots, like those of the Pheasant-fowl, or so-called 
Spangled Hamburgh, but simply an irregular narrow black line across the wing, 
formed by small spots on the end of the first row of the wing- covert feathers. 
These covert feathers should be marked with black on the inner w^eb, wiiicli is 
hidden from view, the outer being clear, either red in the Golden or whitish in 
the Silver, with a narrow black spot at the point, which forms the bars. 
‘‘ My reason for advocating the dark tail and bars on the wings is the necessity 
of a certain depth of under-colour in the cock ; for as the male parent influences the 
plumage of the female offspring, so, if the cock has not a sufficiently dark under- 
colour, he cannot, as a rule, produce dark, w-ell-marked pullets ; and it is therefore 
necessary that the cock should have a dark tail, and that the inner w^ebs of the 
