Our Domestic Birds Part 20

At the large show there is so much to see, and the differences between the winning specimens in any cla.s.s are usually so slight, that only those who are familiar with many varieties can make a critical examination of the exhibits. At the smaller shows the varieties are not as numerous, the competing cla.s.ses are smaller, and the differences between the specimens which win prizes are often plainly apparent, even to a novice, if he has a clue to the method of making the awards. Those who visit large shows can use their time to best advantage if they make as careful a study as they can of the few things in which they take the most interest, and take just a casual look at everything else. In the four or five days that it is open to the public it is not possible for any one to make a thorough, discriminating inspection of all that there is to be seen at a large poultry show, and an experienced visitor to such shows never tries to do so. At many of the small shows even a novice, by studying the exhibits systematically, may get a very good idea of all the cla.s.ses and may add something to his accurate knowledge of a number of different kinds of birds.

=Rudiments of judging.= While even an ordinary poultry show contains a great deal that is of interest to those who know how to get at it, the visitor who does not know how to study the exhibits and simply takes a cursory look at all of them, tires of the regular cla.s.ses at a show in a very short time. After the awards have been made, the ribbons or cards on the coops will show the winning birds and their relative positions, but unless one knows something of the methods and rules of judging and compares the birds with some care, he is likely to get the impression that making comparisons between show birds requires a keener critical faculty than he possesses, and to conclude that it is quite useless for him to attempt to discover why the birds have been ranked in the order in which the judge has placed them.

Judging live stock is not a matter of simple comparisons of weights and dimensions. The personal opinions of the judge necessarily affect his decisions, and as the opinions of men differ, their judgments will vary.

A judge is often in doubt as to which of two or more birds is (all things considered) the better specimen, but he must make his decision on the birds as they appear to him at the time, and that decision must stand for that compet.i.tion. No one, no matter how well he may know the requirements of the standard for a variety and the methods of applying it, can discover by a study of a cla.s.s of birds all of the judge's reasons for his decisions; but any one who will keep in mind and try to apply a few simple, general rules can look over a variety that he has never seen before, and of which he may not know the name, and (unless the judge has been very erratic in his decisions) can see why most of the awards in a small cla.s.s of varied quality have been made.

These rules are:

1. The character or characters that most conspicuously distinguish a type are given most consideration in judging.

2. Color of plumage is given more consideration than shape, unless some shape character is unusually striking.

3. Quality in color of plumage consists in evenness and purity of shade in solid-colored specimens, and in sound colors and distinctness of the pattern in party-colored specimens.

4. The shape of extraordinary superficial shape characters, such as crests, very large combs, heavy foot-feathering, etc., is usually given as much consideration as color.

The first rule really includes all the others, and although this is not usually admitted by the exponents of current methods of judging live stock, in practice it is the fundamental rule in judging. One reason why people who have a little knowledge of standards for well-bred poultry, and of the methods of applying them, are almost always puzzled by the awards at poultry shows is because they try to a.n.a.lyze them in accordance with the commonly accepted theory of judging by points, which a.s.signs definite numerical values to certain characters. This theory a.s.sumes that the judge, taking these values as a basis, computes the values of faults with mathematical accuracy. This is not possible where the computation is based upon an opinion.

To ill.u.s.trate the application of the rules given, let us apply them to some well-known varieties, taking first the Barred Plymouth Rock.

The conspicuous distinguis.h.i.+ng character of this variety is the barred color pattern; therefore color of plumage has most consideration in judging it. The pattern is the same all over the bird; therefore every feather should be barred. The pattern must be sharply defined; therefore the colors must be clean-cut and the bars straight and of nearly equal width on each feather, with the width of bars on feathers of different sizes proportionate to the width of the feather. These requirements seem very simple when stated, but a close examination of ordinary exhibition Barred Plymouth Rocks will show very few specimens that closely approach perfection according to the rules.

Now take the White Wyandotte. The most conspicuous character of any white bird is its whiteness. In judging this variety, therefore, whiteness will have more consideration than any other quality. White Wyandottes are distinguished from White Plymouth Rocks by the shape of the comb; therefore the shape of the comb will be given more attention by the judge than if there were other distinguis.h.i.+ng features.

Silver-Laced Wyandottes are conspicuous for their color pattern; therefore the most important thing is that this shall be well defined and uniform, the white centers clean and white and the black edges intensely black. Uniformity in such markings is very difficult to produce. A bird may be well marked in one section and very poorly marked in another.

In Partridge Cochins the most conspicuous character is extreme feather development; the next is color of plumage, which differs in male and female. Feather development and the shape which it produces will therefore have about equal consideration with color. In color the male is black on the breast and body, with a red neck and back, the feathers of the hackle and the saddle having black stripes in the center; therefore, in the male, quality in color consists in blackness in the black sections, a uniform red in the red sections, and clear and sharp striping wherever it appears. The Partridge Cochin female has plumage of brown penciled with a darker brown; therefore to the eye of a poultry fancier the beauty of her color consists in well-defined penciling and a harmonious contrast in the two shades of color.

A White-Crested Black Polish fowl is most conspicuous for its large white crest; therefore the crest is the most important feature to be considered in judging this variety. But color is also very important, for if the white feathers of the crest are partly mixed with black, or the black of the body is dull, the effect is not pleasing.

The Fantail Pigeon is most conspicuous for its fan-shaped tail; therefore this is the most important thing in judging. The tail must not only be large and well shaped, but must be carried in an attractive manner. It must not be too large, because then the bird cannot carry it in a good position. In addition to carrying the tail in a good position, the bird must pose so that the whole att.i.tude adds to the attractiveness of the princ.i.p.al feature.

Similarly with the Pouter Pigeon, the globular crop, which is its distinctive character, must be large and well formed, and in addition the general carriage must be such as to show the pouting trait to the best advantage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 234. Almost complete view of a poultry show at Worcester, Ma.s.sachusetts]

The same rules of color which apply to fowls apply also to pigeons. The color patterns of pigeons are much more numerous, but as a rule the princ.i.p.al required features are at once obvious to any one who keeps in mind the general rules that have been given.

After the more conspicuous characters, many minor characters are given particular consideration. In theoretical statements of methods of judging, these minor characters are often treated as of equal importance with the conspicuous characters, but in ordinary judging practice they are not often so treated, except in the case of disqualifying faults, to be noted presently. The less conspicuous characters, including shape of body (in regard to which the average fancier and judge is somewhat careless, not discriminating between closely related types), become important in making decisions between specimens which appear to be equal in the more conspicuous characters. Because of this there is a tendency to exaggerate some one minor character whenever a high degree of uniformity in characters that are of primary importance in judging is reached.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 235. Saddle Fantail Pigeon[28]]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 236. White Fantail Pigeons [28]]

[28] Reproduced, by permission, from "Domesticated Animals and Plants,"

by E. Davenport.

=Disqualifications.= The practice of judging the relative merits of exhibition birds princ.i.p.ally by a few striking characters tends to make breeders and exhibitors neglect many little things which affect the appearance of a bird. This is especially the case with exhibitors competing under judges who are partial to some conspicuous character. To prevent this, and to place the heaviest possible penalty upon serious faults that are easily overlooked, certain faults are made disqualifications; that is, a bird having any one of these faults is absolutely debarred from compet.i.tion, no matter how good it may be in other respects.

There is general agreement as to the wisdom and justice of disqualifying for deformities or for mutilations of the feathers to conceal a fault.

In regard to disqualifying for trivial faults, fanciers differ in opinion. Many hold that this has been carried to a ridiculous extreme in some cases. Thus, in all clean-legged fowls it is required that the shanks and toes shall be free from small feathers, stubs, or down. Most fanciers agree that conspicuous feathers and stubs should disqualify, but many consider that to disqualify for a minute bit of down, which can hardly be seen without the aid of a magnifying gla.s.s, is going too far.

Unless the judge has overlooked a disqualification (and this rarely happens), none will be found on a bird that has been awarded a prize. If in any cla.s.s there is a bird which is not given a place, though apparently superior to any of the prize winners in the characters most distinctive of its variety, that bird usually has some disqualification.

The list of disqualifications is too long to be given here. It is not the same throughout for all varieties. Exhibitors and breeders do not attempt to keep track of the disqualifications (which are changed occasionally) for any but the varieties in which they are especially interested.

=Methods of judging.= When exhibitions of domestic birds were first held, the awards were usually made by committees of two or three judges.

The object in doing this was to insure impartiality and to make connivance between a judge and an exhibitor more difficult. It was found that this plan did not work well. Often the opinions of one man dominated, or, if the man could not have his way, the committee wrangled and took too long to make its decisions. So by degrees the committee plan was abandoned and a single judge made the awards in accordance with standards and rules agreed upon by a.s.sociations of exhibitors and judges.

At first all judging was done by comparison of the specimens of each cla.s.s entered in compet.i.tion. That is the method still in general use in Europe and widely used in America. But to many exhibitors comparison judging seemed unsatisfactory, because by it only the winning birds were indicated, and exhibitors whose birds did not win usually wanted to know how their birds compared with the winners. To meet this demand score-card judging was adopted. In this method of judging, the characters to be considered are divided into sections, which are named in order on a card having corresponding blank s.p.a.ces in which to mark numerical cuts for faults in each section. The score cards used at poultry shows where judging is done by that method do not indicate to which of several possible faults a cut applies, except that, having one column for shape cuts and another for color cuts, they show in which cla.s.s the fault appears. In many educational and private score cards the names of the common faults in each section are printed in the s.p.a.ce allotted that section, in order that the fault may be accurately checked. The use of cards with so much detail is not practical in ordinary compet.i.tion.

The score of a bird judged by the score-card method is the difference between 100 (taken as the symbol of the perfect bird of any variety) and the sum of all the cuts made for faults. The common cuts for faults are for a slight fault, 1 for a p.r.o.nounced fault, and 1 for a very bad fault. Occasionally larger cuts are made for serious faults.

Theoretically the score is supposed to represent accurately the relation of a specimen to a perfect specimen, but really scores only represent in a general way the judges' opinions of the relative values of the birds in a cla.s.s, and indicate to the exhibitor where the judge found faults in his bird.

=Exhibition quality and value.= The winning of a prize at an important show gives a breeder of fancy birds a standing that he could not otherwise acquire. The greater part of the sales of poultry of this cla.s.s are made by mail to persons who do not know the breeder personally and do not see his stock until after purchasing. No matter how good his stock may be, those who want to buy will not pay much attention to his claims for its superior quality until they have such confirmation of those claims as is given by the winning of prizes in compet.i.tion. Then the prices which a breeder can get for his stock will be regulated largely by the prices obtained by other successful exhibitors at shows of the same cla.s.s.

There is a wide range of prices from those that can be secured for stock of the quality that wins at the greatest shows, to those that can be obtained for the kind that wins at ordinary small shows. High prices are paid for noted winners and for other stock of the same breeding, as much for the advertising value of owners.h.i.+p of fine stock as for the actual value of the birds to breed from or to exhibit again. A breeder who wins at some very small show may find it hard to sell either stock or eggs for hatching except at a slight advance over market prices. Some breeders who have made remarkable records in winning at the best shows can get very high prices for their prize-winning stock and for the eggs from it. Fowls sometimes sell as high as $500 each, and eggs at $2 each.

Pigeons also bring very high prices at times, although fewer people are interested in them and sales are not so numerous. The ordinary prices for good stock are quite reasonable, considering how few really fine specimens are produced. The average novice finds that fowls at from $10 to $25 a trio and pigeons at from $5 to $15 a pair have all the quality that he can appreciate.

In the early days of modern fancy poultry culture those breeders who had great reputations could get relatively high prices for almost any bird that would pa.s.s as a breeding specimen of its kind. This is still true of breeders who successfully introduce new varieties or who suddenly attain prominence with stock of their own breeding. But as the stock of a leading breeder becomes widely distributed among smaller breeders, the compet.i.tion of his customers reduces his sales, and especially the sales of the cheaper grades of stock. The most troublesome problem that the best breeders have is to get rid of the lower grades of their stock at a fair profit.

=Why good breeders have much low-priced stock.= Novices in the breeding of fine stock commonly suppose that all pure-bred stock of any variety is of uniform quality. When they learn that, as a rule, only a small part of the young birds hatched from good stock is considered of superior quality, they often conclude that the ideas and the standards of fanciers must be wrong. Even professional and scientific men who become interested in fancy poultry and pigeons often take this view and, after considering the question carefully from their standpoint, try to explain to fanciers how, by changing a standard, they might secure a much larger proportion of specimens approximately perfect according to the standard used. In the case of varieties in which the finest specimens of the different s.e.xes are secured from different matings, many novices waste a great deal of time trying to convince old fanciers that their standards and methods are illogical and unnatural.

To those who do not understand the philosophy of the interest in breeding to highly specialized types the arguments for standards that are adjusted to common results and are easy to attain appear to be unanswerable. Upon the fancier who does understand this philosophy they make no impression at all. The breeding and exhibiting of fancy stock of any kind is primarily a game. The rules of the game are in a measure arbitrary, like the rules in baseball or football or any other game. At the same time they must be framed in the interests of the development of the game as a sport and also as a spectacle. They must be reasonable and must be suited to players of all degrees of skill.

Standards and rules for judging fancy stock develop just as the rules of athletic games develop. A generation ago such games as baseball and football were comparatively simple games in which boys and men might take very creditable parts without devoting a great deal of attention to practice. These games still afford recreation to many who use them for that purpose only, but they have also been developed so that players of exceptional skill play compet.i.tion games for the interest of a public which studies the fine points of these games and compares the abilities of the players. People who take an interest in and patronize professional or high-cla.s.s amateur ball games do so because in them skillful and well-trained players do difficult things. It is the same in the breeding of fancy live stock to a high standard of excellence. When a breed or a variety is first made, the interest of the breeders centers in a few characters, precisely as the interest of a novice in any line centers in a few prominent features. As breeders grow in experience and in skill, and as the characters to which they first give special attention become fixed, they demand better quality in these and also turn their attention to the development of other characters. The more difficult a combination of characters is to produce, the greater interest the fancier takes in trying to produce it. When a standard calls for a high degree of excellence in many characters, the proportion of specimens of high excellence, as measured by that standard, will almost always be small. It is because this is the case that the rare specimens are considered so valuable.

=Fancy and utility types in the same variety.= The great majority of American breeders of fancy poultry seek to secure a high degree of practical value in combination with fancy quality in their stock. There are some fanciers who breed only for fancy points, and some market poultry growers who pay no attention at all to them, but as a rule those who give market poultry special attention want well-bred stock of good ordinary quality, and those who keep poultry for pleasure want the flock kept for this purpose to supply at least their own tables with eggs and meat. The breeder who wishes to combine fancy and utility properties in any kind of live stock must breed only from specimens that are meritorious in both directions, selecting much more carefully than when breeding for one cla.s.s of properties.

CHAPTER XXII

OCCUPATIONS RELATED TO AVICULTURE

The value of a knowledge of domestic birds is not limited to the use which may be made of it in keeping them for profit or for pleasure. Any occupation in which a great many people are interested affords opportunities to combine the knowledge relating to it with special knowledge or skill in other lines, to the advantage of those who are able to do so. Just as the large market or fancy poultry business may develop from a small flock kept to supply the owner's table or to give him a little recreation, many special occupations grow out of particular interests of aviculturists. Some of these have been mentioned incidentally in preceding chapters. In this chapter the princ.i.p.al occupations a.s.sociated with aviculture will be discussed both in their relation to that subject and with respect to their possible interest for those who plan to devote themselves to lines of work which would qualify them for special service in aviculture.

=Judging fancy poultry and pigeons.= There is the same difference between selecting one's own birds according to quality and judging the birds of others in compet.i.tion that there is between performing well in a friendly game and performing well in a compet.i.tion where the stakes are important and feeling runs high. Many fanciers who are good breeders and also good judges under other conditions make poor judges in compet.i.tions. In judging at shows decisions must be made quickly, there is little opportunity to rectify mistakes, and if a judge makes serious blunders he is severely criticized. A person who deliberates a long time before coming to a decision, and who is very sensitive to criticisms of his errors, even though he knows that some errors are sure to be made by every one and that unprejudiced exhibitors make allowance for this, will not make a successful judge of poultry and pigeons. Judges as a cla.s.s are not the men who know the most about standard-bred birds or who are the most skillful in breeding them, although some of the best breeders are among the best judges. Almost all fanciers get opportunities to act as judges. If their work is satisfactory, the demand for their services increases until in time their income from this source may be large enough to make it worth while to adjust their other affairs to their engagements at poultry shows.

=Journalism.= There were a few books on poultry and pigeons written in the first half of the last century, and a larger number immediately following the "hen-fever" period. These and the articles on poultry and pigeons in agricultural papers const.i.tuted the literature of the subject until about 1870. Then there appeared a number of poultry journals, most of which gave some attention to other domestic birds. The demand for special journals arose because many people who were interested in poultry were living in cities and were not interested in general agriculture; they wanted more information about poultry matters than the agricultural papers could give. Advertisers of poultry and pigeons, and of goods bought by aviculturists, also wished advertising mediums through which they could reach buyers at less cost than they could through the agricultural papers. The rates for advertising are based upon circulation, and if only a small cla.s.s of the readers of a publication are buyers of a particular cla.s.s of goods advertised in it, the cost of reaching them may be too great. Whenever any interest becomes of sufficient importance, journals especially devoted to it are issued, for the convenience of buyers and sellers as well as for the information they contain. Until about 1890 nearly all poultry journals were small publications which the owners looked after in their spare time. Then they began to increase in number and importance, and before long there were a great many that gave regular employment to editors, advertising solicitors, and subscription solicitors, who were employed for their knowledge of poultry and their acquaintance with poultrymen as well as for special qualifications for their respective departments.

=Art.= The ill.u.s.trating of poultry journals and books, and of the catalogues of fanciers and other advertisers in poultry literature, gives employment to a constantly increasing number of artists. In order to successfully portray birds for critical fanciers, an artist must be something of a fancier. It is not enough that he should draw or paint them as he sees them; he must know how to pose birds of different kinds, types, and breeds so that his pictures will show the proper characteristic poses and show the most important characters to their best advantage. Since the half-tone process of making ill.u.s.trations was perfected, the greatest demand is for photographic work, but unless an artist is able to work over and complete a defective photograph with brush or pencil, he cannot make this line of work profitable. Most birds are difficult subjects to photograph, and only a small proportion of the photographs that are taken can be used without retouching. A photographer may work for an hour to get a bird posed to suit him, and then, just as he presses the bulb, the bird, by a slight movement of the head or foot, may spoil one feature in a photograph that is otherwise all that could be desired. An artist who can draw birds can remedy such defects; the ordinary commercial artist cannot.

=Invention.= The most important invention used in aviculture is the artificial incubator. Methods of hatching eggs by artificial heat were developed independently by the Egyptians and by the Chinese thousands of years ago, and are still used in Egypt and China. The arrangements used in these old hatcheries are crude, and the success of the operation depends upon exceptional skill and judgment on the part of the operator.

Operating incubators is a business continued in the same families for centuries. Each hatchery does the hatching for a community.

In the early part of the eighteenth century a French scientist named Reaumur, who was much interested in poultry, began to make experiments in artificial hatching and brooding. In 1750 he published a very full account of these and other experiments which he had made with poultry.

His idea was to devise a modification of the Egyptian practice of hatching in ovens, suited to the conditions of a more advanced civilization. He succeeded in hatching eggs by utilizing the waste heat from a baker's oven, and also hatched eggs in hotbeds heated with decomposing manure. He applied the hotbed principle to the brooding of chickens with some success. But the methods that he devised were not adapted to general use.