THE FANCIER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1262, 7 May 1896, Page 28

THE FANCIER.

POULTRY.

BY RED CAP

BUFF-OOLOURED POULTRY.

The vagaries of the fashion in the colours of° domestic fowls are on a par with those that prevail in the dress of ■women. They have nothing whatever to do with utility or even beauty, but they are just the temporary demand which will last'fur a few seasons and then disappear. At present the rage ia for buff fowls of various breeds. Until the advent of the Cochins buff fowls were almost entirely unknown, except in a rare little breed termed Nankin Bantams, and as far as I am aware it was conliued to them. The uniform buff colour which was found in the Cochins, although many of them wero, at the time of their introduction, characterised by striped feathers on the saddle of the cocks and neck h:ickle of the het)3, was one of the circumstances which I am inclined to think indicate tho distinct origin of the Cochin from that of the ordinary breeds of fowls, a subject to which I hive long been paying attention. The manufacture of buff breeds ot various kinds, in almost all cases from crossing with the Cochins, is one with which I confess to have very little sympathy. For example, cur American cousins, taking a breed founded on the Brahma, but modified by the inlrod tntion of a rose comb and laced feathers, viz., feathers margined with black on all parts of tho body, produce a breed which they term tho Wyandotte. This waa attempted to bo made into a market fowl, but very unsuccessfully. Its recommendations were its striking appoarauce, from its lace 1 or margined feathers, and its fair production of eggs, arising from its vigour being in creasod by recent crossing. The egg pro duction, as tho bird is to be bred for feather, has not been attended to and has naturally fallen off, and the object of the fancy now is to breed the birds of it buff colour, and wo have buff Wyandottes, obviously got by a cross with the C >chiti. The Mediterranean breeds, Spanish, Minorcas, Auconas, Andalusians, and Leghorns, all resembling one another )■' certain characteristics, dill-ring mainly m colour, have in tho like manner, by cross ing with Cochins or Cochin mongrel.., bo°n produced of a butt'colour, and the latest rage in thia direction ia tho breeding of buff Leghorns. Jam not certain about. the success in the attempt to breed bull Langdians, but the mongrels derived from them have been easily modified, and wo have buff Orpingtons. lam happy to say that the more useful breed of fowls, Dorking and Game, have hitherto escaped this phase, nor have I yet heard of bull Hamburga or buff Brahmas, the latter ot which would be too like Cochins to oiler much inducement for their manufacture. If fanciers would take tho interest ill breeding birds for the table or for the production of egi's that they have in the production of birds for foa'hor, h >tv miiic.i more profitable, at least to tli ■ r.e:.;try at largo, the poultry pursuit might be made. We' complain of the huge sums that are paid forehand poultry t . 1.'.i0 forei-ntr. without Uciiiaii.lo c .n-ideraUoa that !«ic sin ill peasants all over Franc, taly, Denmark, and otin r countries, breed not for the pattern : f feather or colour o their fow ! i<, but f>r the piV.uctio:i ol their eggs and their po-ilny f>r l» ><l Their birds are in hlr-.ny c mts.-.Rt -in th(. 3 o seen a! our sin.', tln hi- and ( i'i "' Is r.re cxium '->■< mid hundr.iD o ; p-ia-s are n varded, without o-.epeiu.f birds being sh ; wn or nun priz> 0if.,r,,1 tint !ni 'he shguie [ refeienee to the in.teased production of cgg:i or p.-ultiy i""r fo-al •W. L lYgetnioier, in the i > Id