BLACK COCHINS. 



249 



The hackles of these hens should be deep red- 

 dish orange, with a broad and dense black stripe 

 resembling C in Fig. 88. 



These dark hens are often of noble and 

 massive proportions, and hence the males of 

 this variety are at present often better than the 

 females, which, since the last Brahma cross for 

 pencilling, have too often been small and weedy. 

 It was very striking, until the older style of 

 marking had died out, to see the two side by 

 side, and mark the grandeur of the older type 

 compared with the modern. The increase of 

 size and Cochin shape in the exhibition females 

 is the most pressing desideratum in Partridge 

 Cochin breedmg, and much might be done by 

 selecting the finest birds, and systematic feedmg 



tridges and Whites in size and form, and 

 awakened quite a new interest in this variety 

 amongst Cochin breeders. For their slow pro- 

 gress in early years there were several reasons ; 

 one being the predominant rage for buffs and 

 whites, and another the scarcity of stock, which 

 led to in-breeding, and caused want of size and 

 weediness of build, the proper methods of line- 

 breeding not being then understood. Another 

 reason was the attempt to keep up bright yellow 

 shanks, which all black fowls strongly resist 

 From one cause and another they had become 



Wing. 



Back. 



Fig. 90. — Feathers of Cockbreeding Partridge Hen. 



for size, as treated of in the earlier chapters of 

 this work. Even a cross from the browner and 

 more massive type of Dark Brahma hens might 

 possibly prove useful ; it being obviously the 

 smaller paper-ground birds, chosen for beauty of 

 marking, which have done the mischief, and 

 whiteness of ground not being necessary in the 

 Partridge Cochin. 



Black Cochins have been known from the 

 earliest days, but until comparatively recent 

 years have been little bred in comparison with 

 other varieties, and generally be- 

 Black hind them in Cochin quality. At 



Cochins. the shows of recent years, however, 



the specimens shown by Capt. R. S. 

 Williamson and the Rev. F. Sutton Dodd 

 have, in several instances, surpassed both Par- 



nearly extinct, when the introduction of Lang- 

 shans in 1872 gave strong fresh blood, renewed 

 size, and better colour. Such a cross now would 

 be hopeless ; but the illustration of the original 

 Langshans on a later page will show that at 

 that date the poor existing Black Cochins had 

 little to lose even in model from the new blood 

 as then known, and the chief change really 

 wrought by it was in the question of leg colour. 

 For a time this was generally quite dark, as in 

 the Langshan, but gradually a very dusky 

 yellow came to be generally recognised as the 

 correct type, and the strengthened stock has 

 been, with the aid of other Cochin crosses, bred 

 up to Its present standard. 



The following notes on Black Cochins have 

 been kindly contributed by Capt. R. S.William- 

 son, of The Grange, Hednesford, well known as 



