Hi,

I was looking through a fly tying book from the 70s and in the picture showing the "badger" feather the feather was white with a black centre stripe and black tips as well. In all sorts of books the proper Coch-a-bondu (sp?) hackle is a brown with black centre strip (along the stem) and black tips (so the centre and edges of the feather are black).

I've never seen feathers like either of these for sale, and the books all point out that the Coch-a-bondu is as rare as hen's teeth, but I've never seen the black-tipped badger either. All the feathers referred to as badger are just white with black centres. Does anyone breed these anymore, or are these just rare birds?

- Jeff