Crisp 
Conundrums. 
(! 52 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
then some of the young might be heavily 
marked. It was very difficult to get cinnamon 
blood set so as to produce all nicely-marked 
buffs. On one occasion he had a yellow pink¬ 
eyed hen from Mr. J. Thornton, and out of a 
dozen young she bred her owner not one was 
foul marked. In the first two nests there were 
five young, all cocks, and amongst them one or 
two clears, but in a subsequent nest, when he 
used the father of the cock previously used, the 
progeny were all hens—two clears and one cheek 
and wing marked. 
Some Notabilia Dicta. 
From a cinnamon wing-marked hen and black- 
eyed cock he had bred practically self-cinnamon 
greens. 
If yellows were getting too stout or had too 
much feather double yellowing would be found 
beneficial. 
Money was never the sole cause of a bird- 
breeder’s success. 
What would be the use of inbreeding with third- 
rate stock simply for the sale of it? Inbreeding 
set the faults as well as the good points. It 
brought in its train a diminution in size. 
Breeders ran a risk, slight, perhaps, but still 
a risk, in introducing fresh blood, especially 
those whose stocks were nearing perfection. 
He had bred a Southern winner by three con¬ 
secutive outcrosses. 
He was a great believer in medium-sized, 
good quality hens. 
He had used cinnamon blood with satisfactory 
results. It gave a nice silky texture to the 
feather. He favoured it also as a means of im¬ 
proving colour, but not always. 
He liked cinnamon greens crossed with black- 
eyed birds for improving type and colour. To 
improve colour he gave preference to a good- 
coloured cock, though he had secured equally 
good results with hers. 
He would advise all breeders to have some 
cinnamon-marked blood in their room for their 
own edification. 
Double buffing, he believed, increased the web 
of the feather, and was useful for filling up the 
neck of the bird. It tended to tighten feather 
and to produce a preponderance of buffs. Double 
yellowing decreased the web of the feather, but 
not the length. Both double yellowing and 
double buffing should have their limits, and not 
be carried to excess. 
After introducing Belgian blood he had found 
great difficulty in regaining lost size. He could 
not honestly advise anyone to follow his experi¬ 
ment. 
He had obtained excellent results from using 
large hens with small cocks. 
Large buffs were easier to obtain, and usually 
of better quality, than large yellows. 
In the ensuing discussion, 
Mr. Stevenson wondered why cinnamon 
blood, considering that it denoted albinism, did 
not produce poor colour. The lecturer held that 
cinnamon blood improved colour, and drew at¬ 
tention to the fact that Mr. Easterling, a very 
successful member, who was present, got his 
best coloured birds from a bird with cinnamon 
blood in her. Mr. Easterling observed that this 
hen was a rich salmon-cinnamon colour. 
Mr. Knight thought you got equally good 
colour from cocks as hens. In breeding for 
marks the cock bird, he thought, had a lot of 
influence. If you used buff-marked cocks you 
bred heavier-marked birds than if you used 
heavy-marked clear cocks and marked hens. In 
breeding cinnamon marks, if he used a cock he 
invariably got the markings too heavy. 
Mr. Boxall wanted to know what was meant 
by bottle-shaped. Did the lecturer mean a 
whisky bottle or a soda-water bottle? The lec¬ 
turer said it was a sort of cross between the 
two. (Laughter.) Mr. Boxall would under¬ 
stand what he meant. (Laughter.) A bottle 
bird was practically a round-shaped bird. 
Mr. Broome queried what was meant by 
roach-backed. Mr. Crisp said that probably the 
bird suffered from having a fin on the back. 
(Laughter.) 
Mr. Knight thought it meant the bird was 
fuller at the back than it ought to be. 
Mr. Crisp: It’s a sort of “got the hump.” 
(Laughter.) 
Mr. Easterling wanted to know what the 
lecturer thought was the most difficult fault of 
all to breed out of the Yorkshire. 
Mr. Crisp : Trousers. (Laughter.) I have the 
greatest aversion to trousers—(continued laugh¬ 
ter)—not for myself, Mr. Easterling, of course, 
but for the birds. To my mind, this fault runs 
much on a par with the fault of “ hinge tail.” 
If a bird is bad in these respects it is not worth 
using. He did not refer to a “ hoopy ” bird, 
which was not so objectionable, but to a bird 
that showed a distinct angle where the tail joined 
the body. The perennial question of heating 
the bird-room then arose, Mr. Knight advocating 
a perfectly cold room. The lecturer thought 
that through the moult a little heat was bene¬ 
ficial. In Yorkshire he had been over some 
breeders’ rooms (cold rooms), and he was dis¬ 
gusted to find the excreta in the cages almost up 
to the level of the birds’ legs. He was told by 
the offenders that they left it there to generate 
heat. 
Hearty votes of thanks to the lecturer and to 
the Chairman concluded the meeting. 
