In the world of Bantams the diminutive Red takes a position corresponding to that taken by the standard large Reds in the world of the big fowl. The Red Bantam is a fine little bird to work with. It is active and procreative usually with a vigor that lends itself to exhibition style Arthur Schilling emphasized the ornamental aspect of Bantam breeding. Judges have to follow the American Standard of Perfection, but no one could put up a Standard in following which the exercise of judgement would not be needed. It seems to me that good judgement would dictate that Red Bantams be not so held so severely to account, in matters of purely production character, as the standard large Reds.
Considering the Rhode Island Red from a purely commercial point of view I doubt if the Standard requirements have always been in the best interests of the breed. In maintaining breed distinctions, however, possible production opportunities sometimes have to be passed. The way things have turned out it is hard to tell about this. The bare fact is that form and feather seem to maintain as high an indication of permanency as anything connected with the poultry industry.
The rose comb is also moderately large, following the head shape, which gives the spike a position pointing downward. Oval comb shape gives it the appearance of tapering into the spike. Although the rose comb is moderately large, that is something very badly overdone. We see some very rough and ill-shaped rose combs.
Reds have bright, wide open eyes and nicely rounded wattles.
The neck of the male is to be of medium length with the feathers not lying too close in that section. They should be abundant, flowing well over shoulders. That would mean a fair amount of arch. The full, resplendent hackle, of course, is one of the principal beauty spots of the Red. Some Bantams are disproportionately big in head and neck, as they appear from the outside, and that is something to be perfected. A Red or Red Bantam, however, with a straight neck line is not a good Red; and it is better by far to have the neck too full than too slim. The female neck is less conspicuous but the same applies.
The back of the Rhode Island Red is long. I cannot think of any breed of fowl in which the back is relatively longer. That is one of the salient points of Rhode Island Red character. The Plymouth Rock type has often been confused with that of the Red in this way; and often even shorter types than those of the Plymouth Rock. That has been in large fowl, and is now occurring in a greater degree in Bantams. The game is not to obviate Standard specifications but to meet them. That is what gives the zest to the true sportsman.
The body also is long. This applies to Bantams just the same as the large fowl. Too many short bodied Bantams are being placed which if magnified would appear grotesque in standard classes. Many Bantams and some standard large Reds are being shown also that are too deep in the body, far too deep for their length. That is in diametrical opposition to the true Red type. The Red has a longer body than a Plymouth Rock, and the same relative width; yet the Red has a lower standard weight. How then could the Red have as a great a depth as the Rock? Careful examination of the Standard will reveal that it is not supposed to have. It may take greater skill to produce that type in a Bantam but there are Bantam fanciers who are equal to it.
The Red back is horizontal. I don't know why it was required to be that way unless for appearance. That is important because a Red fancier would not have a back on his bird that was other than horizontal. The production Reds weren't the least bit worried about a slope in the back. That ought to make the Bantam men apply themselves to the horizontal back with a greater zeal.
When we think of back we think of tail because the Red back streamlines into the tail to make one of the most beautiful structures known to the avian structures known to the avian world. The tail is well spread, downward and laterally. It is carried low. A properly carried tail is hard to acquire and most tails are too high. In spite of all the cant that has been written on that subject, the latest Standard has moved for a lower tail.
The Rhode Island Red tail is of medium length. How so many people at the same time got the idea that the Rhode Island Red tail was a cousin of the bobtail bird was one of those things I could not understand. That Standard tail is a decided adjunct to the bird, female as well male. I have seen females in which I had to dig down among the coverts to find the main tail at all. If it is an exhibition Red it carries an exhibition tail; and if it does not carry an exhibition tail it is not a good exhibition Red. The plumage of the tail is wide and well woven, the male tail well furnished and the female tail well banked with coverts.
The under line of a Red corresponds to the top line and is absolutely necessary in a complete bird. Loose feathers, for instance, can destroy it. Not in any breed in the under line more parallel to the top line than it is in the Red. The actual keel should be more than ordinarily long. The keel bone itself should not have too great a depth but the forward point should be well forward and the rear point well rearward to give the bird the substance and balance front and rear.
The wing carriage is level, the wing line is parallel with the line of back. The shoulder is not required to be carried up to the same extent that it is in some other breeds. Due to the length of the back there should be more than the usual showing of saddle bank over the rear end of the wings, falling in a smooth, regular drapery. The line of the back, by the way, should be absolutely without convexity. It should have good width throughout, in fact, the entire bird must have good width. This with the relatively shallow keel makes the Red an excellent meat bird.
Loose feathering has absolutely no place in the Red. The under line should be distinct, thigh contours cleanly cut from the body line, the body feathers neatly held and not massed between the hocks and the tail.
The legs are of medium length, the same as the Rock and the Wyandotte. The plumage of the Red thighs is neatly held which makes the legs appear a little longer. But the Red is not a long legged bird. A long bodied bird can carry a greater length of leg with less subversion of symmetry but a short bodied bird set up on stilts is simply not a Red.
There is no breed of fowl in which feather quality is of more importance than it is in the Red. That is because breeders followed color to the exclusion or partial exclusion of other considerations. Then it was discovered that shredded feathers accompanied an easy acquisition of the desired tone of color. As long as I can remember, Delano was maintaining the feather, as a breeder and a judge. What good Rhode Island Red feather quality suffered at the hands of breeders and judges is one of the dark chapters in the history of Standard-Bred fowl. Good feather quality is here to stay. The feather must have good substance and it must be well woven. It must be normal, with the correct apportionment of fluff and web. The standard does not recognize any bizarre strain characteristics. Fanciers will find that failure in fluff of feather will lead to failure in web. But too heavy a quill in the tail feathers of male is something to be avoided.
The exhibition Red is a bird of supreme style. Not only should it have that symmetry which comes of smooth coordination of its various parts; it should have the vigor, nervous energy and character to show itself at its best. A Re should be up on its toes. The Red Bantam character is admirably suited to Rhode Island Red type and style. In the Bantams we look for something superlatively stylish in both male and female. The stodgy type and character of bird is not worthy of the Rhode Island Red.
Bantams should be small. It is a greater accomplishment to produce them small than to produce them big. The big Red should be of good size but not oversize. It is to be remembered that the Red is of good weight for its appearance.
The last Standard has left no further doubt. The tone of red is rich, dark and lustrous. There is no variation. That is it. The dark birds are still winning and in big Reds there is greater uniformity in the color tone of winners than there ever was before. In some Canadian shows some Red Bantams have been placed that were too light in color has been developed to such uniformity that one of these birds of the more dilute shade is under an obvious handicap.
The under color, of course, is red, rich and intense. Roughly speaking, the darker the under color is the better, up to the point that it assumes a dull tone. Red fanciers have described the best color tone as fiery. There are different tones of red in fire. It is the richest of this fiery tone in which the Red fancier is interested. The word "fiery" itself when used to describe Red under color denotes a good, live tone, as opposed to a dull tone. A good, substantial, springy fluff of feather gives better effect to the correct tone. Fluff of feather that lies flat is more likely to be flat in tone.
Slate in the under color has come in for more than its share of influence merely because it is easily spotted. Never less, the cut for a minimum of slate in a section is very light. In many shows a little scattering of slate through the plumage has been tantamount to disqualification. This has been exceeding unjust and without Standard authority. The Standard says plainly that overemphasis of under color should be avoided. Under color is easily outbalanced by good quality that shows on the outside; but where birds are otherwise closely matched, the one with the better under color is entitled to his advantage.
The Rhode Island Red color chart in the new Standard simply does not apply. I doubt if it will be possible to accomplish a purpose with those feather charts. It looks to me as though the inking of the press is not consistent enough to continue printing the same shade of color throughout the run. The shade may be darker in one printed copy than another. Anyway, in my Standard the Rhode Island Red color is coppery. A bird of that color could not in competition with the Red of today.
There are black markings demanded in the Red. For a bird that has been in the Standard for fifty years the Red has not accomplished much with the black. The Standard did not specify which was more important in the wing color, the black marking or the tone of red. Some Red men set back the clock by declaring for a dark tone of red in the wing at all costs. To fanciers used to working with the color markings, and to judges used to recognition of color principles, the Standard markings took precedence. The adverse influence of the inane wing has been such, however, that the Red Bantams have come through with primary and secondary wing markings that have put many winning big Reds to rout. We want those markings that the Standard asks for and with them established we want an improved tone of red. That does not mean that we want a buff wing with a stripe in it. A reasonable amount of judgement has to be exercised.
The tail is black; nothing is said about lacing. I have judged national meets of Rhode Island Reds and at the leading shows of America I have looked over big classes of Reds from the aisle. I have not seen a half a dozen solid black main tails on the females. Those I looked over from the aisles had red on the ends of their main tails on the females. That is nothing for Red men to boast about. We do get some good tails on the males but there an absolutely black tail is rare. Tails of such deficiency would not go far in other breeds and there is no reason why they should be tolerated in Reds. Bantam fancier influence should help in this respect.
The Standard dodges color specification for female coverts. The more mixed the coloring of the main tail the more likely the coverts are to be red. A tail with good quality of black is usually supported with coverts carrying a fair amount of black. Such coloring is more closely associated with broad feather, too. If we are going to have black tails called for, we are going to have black tails. Some day lacing will start showing up in those tail coverts and when it does I predict it will stay. Either that or we are going to have a much sharper contrast between the black of the tail and the adjacent red than we have today. That contrast can come only through a denser quality of black in tail.
The female has a slight black ticking on the ends of the lower hackle feathers. The male is solid red in that respect. This reverses the usual order of color occurrence. I do not know what the idea is. The tone of this red is so dark in any case that it is necessary to look closely to see if the black is there. But that is the requirement and it must be observed. Circumspection is the keynote of this game. Certainly we want all those black points lined up in harmony. There must be quality to the black and it must be consistent from section to section where required. In the same way an excess of black must be guarded against. Excess of black in sections and parts of sections where black is required, is more venial than isolated black outcrop on the wingbar, the breast and so on. Red color has been developed to a degree of perfection that a bird with black outcrop has a small chance in hot competition. If isolated black outcrop is accompanied by a strong quality of black in those sections where it is required, a degree of tolerance may be exercised, depending upon the closeness of the competition. If black outcrop occurs on a bird of red or on a bird that is weak in the required black markings it is a very poor competitor.
In all cases the red is brilliant and lustrous, with the black carrying a good, rich greenish sheen. The broad female feather with a fine lacing, carrying extra brilliant lustre, always met with favor of Schilling. He contended that such plumage was conducive to better feather quality and more brilliant lustre in the male progeny. My own years of experience in breeding Reds has been such that his contention has become a fixed principle.
The reddish horn on the shanks gives good finish to the Red color scheme.
Mr. Wallace was an accomplished breeder who had some outstanding reds. He did much furthering the fabulous Rhode Island Red toward achieving Reds that would meet the APA Standard of Perfection.
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