January
10, 1983
Dear
Mr Plant,
To
start this new year, I sincerely hope you are having some improvement in your
ability to discern the small print as well as the large. I can be sympathetic
with you because of my own problems.
From
the material you previously submitted to me, I thought both the pea and single
comb were in existence on the Australian Pit Game Bantam. However, in view of
the statement in your letter of October 4, 1982, I have deleted from the
description for the male and female, the pea comb in this breed. Unless I hear
further from you, the description will appear hereafter with a single comb
only, dubbed as a preference in the male.
With
reference to the Australian Australorp, I have no intention to write a
separate description for the breed because there appears no significant
variation between our description and that furnished me from your work.
I
was intrigued by your statement that you intended to write about the
indigenous breeds of Australia. I wondered which are breeds which you consider
indigenous and how you concluded that they were not transported for other
locations. There has been controversy over the last three centuries about the
origins of chickens and I will be most interested to hear what you have to say
about this.
There
will be a marked change in the next Edition of Bantam Standard. The book Bantam
Standard will go to press sometime after 1 July 1983. It will contain a
canter section of sixteen pages in full color showing the most popular breeds
of Bantams in the United States and the associated color patterns. The Bantam
Standard will now include all recognized breeds that are actively being
raised in the United States and for which advertising is carried in the ABA
Yearbook. A second, separate volume will be titled Rare and Foreign Breeds of Bantams and will pick up all breeds and
varieties not included in the Bantam
Standard.
By
the way, I don’t remember your mentioning that you received a copy of the 5th
Edition which was dispatched in the mail to you in August 1981. It was a
numbered and autographed copy. Did you receive it?
Sincerely,