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Now to get to the necks that you sent me photos of. The cree colors
are
there, but not in the density and segregation to call it cree. As mentioned in a previous post, a dark badger with ginger and cream bars would have the cree colors, but wouldn't be a cree. The underlying larger feathers are a giveaway as to the pedigree of the neck. If the feathers are badger, it is unlikely a cree variant (photo 5). If the larger feathers maintain barring and the color scheme doesn't fall apart, it is probably a cree variant (photo 1). The first photo is of a nice med.-barred ginger variant, a step to getting cree. It has cree colors, but not in well-defined bands, especially the dark bar being well defined and all the way across- even in the small neck feathers. The small neck feathers are usually the first ones to lose the black bar and just show up as a dark bar ginger. This bird would have to be bred to a grizzly again to bring back the dark bars, thus a better grade of cree. Remember though, that the offspring is a mix, with many variations (variants) and a few cree, and few of these true crees being high quality crees. This 1st neck is a nice one and a keeper- just shy of being cree. It is not speckled, but barred. One must look at an individual feather, not the cape, in assessment of speckling, as it really goes down to the barb itself. I like this neck. Photo 4 is a good example of side-by-side comparing of 'pedigree'. I can only see the tips of the back feathers of the capes, but it's easy to tell the one on the left is a bar-ginger variant, and the one on the right is a badger variant. The left one is somewhere on the way to being a cree, but is only a nice variant. The right one is a Heinz 57 and could be anything in cross-bred colors- that's why the cape as a whole looks 'speckled', as there is no pattern emerging. Also, note the lack of ginger color that the left one has. I have one mottled saddle that is a true variant. The feather changes colors back and forth- dark brown to white- down the length, and the cross-bars (fine lines) are broken up, looking mottled in the natural state, but speckled in the palmered state. It is a very interesting genetic anomaly- only one Tom has ever found. Many yeas ago, as you well know, these necks in your photos were the 'Status Quo' of tying hackles. There is no comparing these to today's hackles, especially Whiting's. They are still very useable, as I tied many Platte River Special streamers with outer feathers of these varieties, and they were very effective. It would just take a couple-dozen of these necks to tie what one gold neck would tie, and many many dozens to tie what a gold saddle would tie. Whiting's neck feathers are so genetically select- even the large ones- that to get those nice streamer feathers I have to buy the cheaper grades of necks to get them. For $.50 each, they were a steal, but I don't think I'd pay $10 for them, unless the color of the large streamer feathers was perfect for a specific streamer pattern. Hope that helps, DonO |
