SOME USEFUL MODERN FOWLS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 67 (Supplement)

SOME USEFUL MODERN FOWLS

(By Joseph Pettipher.)

THE SILVER-PENCILLED WVAN-

* DOTTE,

The silver-pencilled is one of the latest additions to the ever-growing family yclept Wyandotte. It appears as though there never was a breed so’ capable of unlimited expansion! We frequently hear it stated that there are toohnany Wyandottes, and yet every new-comer seems to find its supporters, and if it is a good one rapidly attains a front rank in the poultry world. In America, before the partridge was called partridge it was introduced as gold-pencilled and subsequently the same breeders started a silver-pencilled. Thus they had gold-laced and silver-laced, goldpencilled and siver-pencilled much on the Hamburgh lines. The silver-pencilled is related to the dark Brahma in much the same manner that the partridge is to the partridge Cochin, but with one great difference — viz.., the partridge Wyandotte .played a great part in conjunction with the dark Brahma in the foundation of the pencilled variety. In America the two

pioneers of this breed were Messrs Brackenbury and Cornell. Both worked for some time at their respective strains. Later, I believe, Mr Cornell bought up all Mr Brackenbury’s, and subsequently Mr Cornell dying, his flock passed into the hands of another very ardent breeder. The strain first carettmy established lias been as carefully retained. Having had for some years a very friendly acquaintance by letter with Mr Brackenbury, I heard all about these new pencils quite in their infancy, and on one occasion I asked- him the price for a pen of birds. This was before any had been imported into this country. Mr Brackenbury was very honest and straightforward. He replied that he had none then fit to sell; the breed was not sufficiently advanced, and at the same time he suggested I should start and “make” them, the same as he was doing himself. Very candidly he told me his

MATINCS, the first of which was one that he assured me would bring the majority of the pullets true to the tyre required, except that there would be some leg feather to get rid of. It was. this: “Mate a dark Braiima male to partridge Cochin females, and your first results will be practically perfect silver-pencill-ed Wyandotte pullets plus some legfeather, but your cockerels will have ‘rusty’ wings anti shoulders. The reverse mating (partridge male and Brahma females) will do, but it won’t come out correct so rapidly.” Despite the fact that the lark Brahma was undoubtedly one of the great essentials, I felt somewhat sceptical that this first mating with them and the partridges would produce so much. However, I consulted my old fancier friends, Dr and Mrs Campbell, so well-known for years as among the most careful of dark Brahma breeders, and they agreed to join me in trying the experiment. There was no partnership beyond an exchange of stock. In the first place, they sent me a dark Brahma cockerel to mate with my partridge pullets, and I sent them a partridge cockerel for their Brahma’ pullets. Results proved Mr Brackenbury’s words perfectly correct. " Into’ subsequent details I need not enter. I think, a little explanation as to origin may be advisible and desirable. Well, the result of our experiments has proved most satisfactory, and working in unison has enabled us to interchange and keep distinct strains, and thus avoid too close inbreeding, of which there is always a danger when trying to reach a certain object. So well did our experiments answer, that in 11)1)2 a pallet which Mrs Campbell bred from one of her strains won first Crystal Palace and other prizes. Into another ,-branch of our strain I grafted an Amercian strain pencilled cockerel, thinking to more rapidly reduce leg feather- This it did, but at the expense of size, the Amercian birds being much smaller than ours. I attribute the latter to the use of a considerable quantity of Hamburgh blood, both by Mr Cornell and Mr Brackenbury, and on the whole the best and most successful strain we have is the one descended from the matings first referred to. This variety is another marked instance of what the fancier can do in providing the , utility poultry-keeper with a reliable layer and a useful table fowl. Oh both sides of the Atlantic, I believe, there has been a careful eye kept on

THE LAYING PROPERTIES and the colour of tlie egg. Some of the eggs were at first erratio in colour, but careful selection has brought them to a rich brown, not excelled by any Wyandotte s and, like the partridge, they lay well m winter, and are a hardy, active breed suited to almost any locality; whilst their soft rich colour attracts the eye of every lover of the beautiful. The glossy black breasts of the cocks, with their clear, silvery top colour make them very attractive and the beautifully pencilled markings of the hens with a clear ground colour, like unto the dark Brahma, combined with sharply striped hackles and a true shape make them a picture for aa artist.

• A word to the novice may not be out of/place. It is this: Do not confound the silver-pencilled with the oldest of •- the Wyandotte family—the silver-laced The original Wyandotte was first called a “silver-laced,” but the absence of any other silvery-coloured Wyandotte for a number of years led to the abbreviation “silver”; but now that another has come on the scene it is wise to revert to

the full name of the older breed in order to avoid confusion. That this definition is necessary is proved by some instances which have come under my notipe, where a beginner in silver-pencils has erroneously entered his birds for exhibition in a class for “silver or gold,” when, of course, they should have gone into the “any other variety” Wyandotte class, or, failing that, the class for any other breed of fowls, as by “silver or gold” it was intended undoubtedly to infer silver or gold “laced” and not pencilled. Ido not wish it for a moment to be understood that I wish in any way to run down that grand old breed the silver-laced. As an old standard breed of upwards of thirty years’ standing it canuot come within the scope of the title of these notes; but I may be allowed to parenthetically remark that possilbly no breed has better stood the test of time or better held it own in publio favour, be it in show pen or at a laying competition. What I wish to do is to emphasise the distinction between the old and the new, a matter that will, no doubt, right itself as the newer aspirant to public favour becomes, as it is so rapidly doing, better known. “Good wine needs no bush,” says an old proverb, and I fully believe the silverpencilled Wyandotte has come, to *stay and to successfully hold its own with the other popular varieties of modern breeds of poultry.