I feel I must congratulate John Harrison on a good and informative Show Tippler Notes in the last issue.
Just to add, as Ken Shaw informed me, my birds carry a good deal of 'mottle' blood and, as will have been seen in some of my pictures, this is not too difficult to bring out of them if birds that show just a few white feathers are mated together, the offspring then usually moulting more white. As my object was to breed selfs, these matings were not pursued but nevertheless all my birds do 'carry' the mottle gene. I will relate one gem told to me by Ken Shaw. He had a bird 'made up' to Champion as a dark mottle, several years later, it had moulted so much white it was a light mottle! Such are the vagaries of Show Tippler breeding.
The photos show a young English Show Tippler. When they show white feathers at this age, it means they are carrying 'mottle' (tiger mark) strongly. In the old days birds such as this would have been 'plucked' in the nest to form the desired pattern. Pulling the newly growing bronze feathers damages the feather root and causes the next feather to grow through white, this practice is frowned upon nowadays. (The same technique was used to create the wing pattern on the Bohemian Swallow (FlŸgelschecken).
I have in the past had what could have been 'dark mottles' (with a bit of help) but my object was to breed selfs, so these birds showing white were not mated together which would have increased the percentage of white feathers moulted in offspring. In fact I have a hen now that could, when finished with the next moult, almost be termed a dark mottle.
The mother in the photo is shown in early June before the moult, she now has far more 'new' white feathers moulted in and so far in the right places!
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Photo captions: Top and middle: Young English Show Tippler Bottom: Mother of the young birds before the moult
