STANDARD VARIETIES OE CHICKENS. 
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Fig. 18.—Blue Andalusian, female. 
follow the neck. The comb of the female is practically identical with 
that of the Leghorn female. The male has a general top color of 
dark lustrous blue, approaching black, which extends over the hackle, 
back, saddle, shoulders, sickle feathers, and tail coverts. The rest of 
the plumage is a slaty blue which shows in most sections a well- 
defined lacing of darker blue. In the female the general plumage 
color is a slaty blue of even shade, each feather having a clear, well- 
defined, narrow lacing of darker blue. The neck has a decidedly 
darker cast of plumage than the rest of the body. The undercolor 
of both sexes is a slaty blue throughout. The legs and toes are leaden 
blue and the skin is white in color. 
The behavior of the Blue Andalusian in breeding is peculiar and 
interesting. When both sexes in the mating are blue, the chicks 
hatched are never all of them blue, but approximately 50 per cent 
come black or white or some combination of black and white. One- 
half of this 50 per cent, or 25 per cent of all the chicks from the 
mating, are black or occasionally black showing some red, especially 
in the males; while the other 25 per cent of the chicks come some kind 
of white—in general, white splashed with black or blue. If matings 
are made in which one of the sexes is black and the other white, all 
of the chicks hatched will come some sort of blue. This latter form 
