ting-cocks were so
notorious, continued to breed from his own kind till they lost their
disposition to fight, but stood to be cut up without making any
resistance, and were so reduced in size as to be under those weights
required for the best prizes; but on obtaining a cross from Mr.
Leighton, they again resumed their former courage and weight." It
should be borne in mind that game-cocks before they fought were always
weighed, so that nothing was left to the imagination about any
reduction or increase of {125} weight. Mr. Clark does not seem to have
bred from brothers and sisters, which is the most injurious kind of
union; and he found, after repeated trials, that there was a greater
reduction in weight in the young from a father paired with his
daughter, than from a mother with her son. I may add that Mr. Eyton, of
Eyton, the well-known ornithologist, who is a large breeder of Grey
Dorkings, informs me that they certainly diminish in size, and become
less prolific, unless a cross with another strain is occasionally
obtained. So it is with Malays, according to Mr. Hewitt, as far as size
is concerned.[272]

An experienced writer[273] remarks that the same amateur, as is well
known, seldom long maintains the superiority of his birds; and this, he
adds, undoubtedly is due to all his stock "being of the same blood;"
hence it is indispensable that he should occasionally procure a bird of
another strain. But this is not necessary with those who keep a stock
of fowls at different stations. Thus, Mr. Ballance, who has bred Malays
for thirty years, and has won more prizes with these birds than any
other fancier in England, says that breeding in-and-in does not
necessarily cause deterioration; "but all depends upon how this is
managed." "My plan has been to keep about five or six distinct runs,
and to rear about two hundred or three hundred chickens each year, and
select the best birds from each run for crossing. I thus secure
sufficient crossing to prevent deterioration."[274]

We thus see that there is almost complete unanimity with
poultry-breeders that, when fowls are kept at the same place, evil
quickly follows from interbreeding carried on to an extent which would
be disregarded in the case of most quadrupeds. On the other hand, it is
a generally received opinion that cross-bred chicken