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THE POULTRY BOOK. 
the most diminutive, and consequently the most weakly, fowls of this variety, as 
the parent birds. This plan would not receive the sanction of the breeders of 
any other kind of stock whatever, simply on account of its inevitable tendency to 
produce deterioration of character in the offspring ; nor have I the slightest doubt 
in my own mind but that the determination of Sebright amateurs to obtain small 
birds, by any and every means, has increased the difficulty of breeding them as 
much as the mistake of constant inter-breeding. Great care should be taken that 
all the stock birds have perfect rose-combs, as no others are admissible for 
competition ; and imperfections of the comb are apt to prove hereditary for many 
generations, and are very difficult to breed out. Another very essential feature is 
the clear ground-colour of the old birds selected for stock, as even the slightest 
impurity in this respect is perpetuated in the offspring. In my remarks as to 
male Sebright Bantams, I particularly desire to be very distinctly understood. 
A cock of this variety for exhibition purposes undoubtedly should possess neither 
hackle nor saddle feathers ; and as to the tail, should be altogether devoid of 
sickle-feathers — the hen-tail makes the perfect bird ; but they rarely breed well, 
so for that especial reason are so much the more valuable when they do. When 
possessing a good hen-tail with the side tail-coverts regularly and distinctly 
marked, it is impossible to imagine a more beautiful specimen in any variety of 
fancy poultry. The gait of some of these birds is extraordinarily characteristic : I 
have seen the carriage so peculiar, that the head and tail have nearly touched each 
other if the fowls were a little alarmed ; and the lacings on the breast and wing- 
coverts thus displayed itself to unusual advantage. In the Sebright chickens I 
have invariably found those covered with the darkest down, when first hatched, 
eventually made the best laced specimens ; and that the lighter coloured are 
less distinctly laced, when adult, in exact proportion to the lightness of their 
colour when hatched.” 
The assumption of the male plumage by barren hens has been already alluded 
to in the chapter on Game fowls. The change from the female to the male 
plumage, as before remarked, is always accompanied by perfect sterility, whether 
it shows itself in the hen pheasant or in the hen of any of the varieties of 
the domestic fowl. In those cases that have been hitherto observed, the barren 
hen has assumed the plumage proper to a male of her own variety. But in an 
interesting case made known to us by Mr. Hewitt, in which a Sebright hen 
assumed the masculine attire, the conditions are somewhat different. The male 
Sebright being perfectly hen-feathered, has no male plumage, properly so called, 
both sexes being feathered alike ; consequently, if any change occurs in the 
plumage of a Sebright hen, it must be by the assumption of feathers which are 
not proper to the male of that breed. 
The barren hen in the possession of Mr. Hewitt that has assumed a cock’s 
plumage, has the hackle-feathers fully four inches long, narrow and pointed, with 
broad dark margins and a narrow line of white running down the centre of each 
feather. The saddle-feathers are five inches in length, narrow, pointed, and 
