26o 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



how Dr. Bennett had shown him this "pre- 

 pared account " months before ; and once 

 again he asserts how Dr. Bennett had prac- 

 tically forged the entire account. In reply 

 to this we cited reiterated statements by Dr. 

 Bennett to the direct contrary ; while Burn- 

 ham had never dared to say in his lifetime, 

 what he ventured upon now he was dead. But 

 more occurred in America itself; for the dis- 

 cussion brought out Mr. C. Flaisted, Dr. Ben- 

 nett's old partner, who professed to correct 

 certain " errors " both in Cornish and Bennett, 

 while confirming their narratives as a whole ; 

 but only succeeded in showing that they might 

 possibly be one year out in some of their dates, 

 they being however proved right and himself 

 wrong in one alleged case by almost contem- 

 porary documents which were better evidence 

 than Plaisted's mere memory a quarter of a 

 century later. It also brought out the very 

 man who had bought the fowls in New York — 

 a Mr. Knox, who turned out to be not a 

 "sailor" but a sort of ship-clerk — who added his 

 evidence. And finally we received, and possess 

 still, quite a bundle of letters from Mr. C. Flais- 

 ted and Dr. Bennett to Miss Watts, the editor 

 of the English Poultry Chronicle, most of 

 which are still unpublished, containing ample 

 evidence to the same effect, and showing how 

 they had combated Burnham's statements from 

 first to last, and all along the line. 



But it also appeared that Burnham had been 

 breeding birds of his own, quite distinct from 

 the others, from either grey Shanghaes or from 

 grey " Chittagongs" so-called, and an important 

 question arose of how they stood related to the 

 others. Mr. Burnham alleged that his birds, 

 sent to the Queen as above, were the first sent 

 to England, and were, as stated in a letter by 

 Dr. Gwynne, " admitted by Dr. Bennett to be 

 precisely similar to his own." He manipulated 

 Dr. Gwynne's statement so as to read that 

 Dr. Bennett had admitted Buriihani's stock to be 

 precisely similar to his ; but we discovered and 

 proved by ample evidence, that what Dr. Ben- 

 nett always alleged was the fact that those 

 sent to the Queen were birds not of Burnham's 

 own, but of the Cornish strain, purchased from 

 Mr. George Smith of Rhode Island. Bennett 

 gave plenty of evidence of this in letters above 

 alluded to, which we cited ; but we also proved 

 from Burnham's own statements in a paper 

 which he edited in 1853, that (on his own 

 showing) he had purchased from Rhode Island 

 two pens for Lord Northby ; and later that the 

 Queen's birds " were from the same stock as 

 those lately sent to Lord Northby." They 

 were not the first sent to England, Dr. Bennett 



himself having sent over a pen to Mrs. Hosier 

 Williams previously ; but they had great in- 

 fluence in spreading the breed, being exhibited 

 by Prince Albert soon after their arrival ; and 

 this proof of their real origin is therefore of 

 considerable historical importance. 



Still there is no doubt at all that Burnham 

 did breed and exhibit birds of his own, and 

 that he had some at the Fitchburg show of 

 1850 : the only remaining point of importance 

 is to disentangle the separate exhibits at this 

 exhibition. About that there is no difficulty. 

 Burnham alleged that Dr. Bennett's " Brahmas " 

 were bred from a grey Chittagong cock bought 

 from Dr. Kerr. Dr. Bennett always admitted 

 that those he showed at Fitchburg in 1850 

 were so bred, and shown as Burram-pooters ; 

 but he always denied that he bred them after 

 that ; he then dropped them in favour of the 

 Hatch stock, which had been bought from 

 Cornish, and which he thought infinitely better. 

 That Bennett and Burnham were both trying 

 to " boom " poultry against each other, is 

 perfectly clear ; and it was to further this 

 self-advertisement that the latter affirmed that 

 all the Brahmas came from his stock, and that 

 his was the original. The following sentences 

 will settle all these points clearly : — 



At the Fitchburg Depot Show in 1850, my original 

 " Grey Chittagongs " [already described] were in the 

 possession of G. W. George, Esq., of Haverhill, to 

 whom they had been sold by the party to whom I 

 had previously sold them. Nobody thought well of 

 them ; but they took a first prize there, and the 

 " Chittagongs " (so entered at the same time) of Mr. 

 Hatch, of Connecticut, also took a prize. My friend 

 the Doctor then insisted that these were also " Bur- 

 ram-pooters " ; but, as nobody but himself could 

 pronounce this jaw-cracking narhe, it was taken little 

 notice of at that time. 



Mr. Hatch had a large quantity of the Greys at 

 this show, which sold readily at $12 to $20 the pair; 

 and immediately after this exhibition the demand 

 for " Grey Chittagongs " was very active. I watched 

 the current of the stream, and I beheld with earnest 

 sympathy the now alarming symptoms of the fever. 

 "The people" had suffered a relapse in the disease, 

 and the ravages now promised to become frightful — 

 for a time ! 



An ambitious sea captain arrived at New York from 

 Shanghae, bringing with him about a hundred China 

 fowls, of all colours, grades, and proportions. Out of 

 this lot I selected a few grey birds, that were very large, 

 and (consequently) " very fine," of course. 1 bred 

 these, with other grey stock I had, at once, and soon 

 had a fine lot of birds to dispose of — to which I gave 

 what I have always deemed their only true and appro- 

 priate title (as they came from Shanghae) — to wit, Grey 

 Shanghaes. — Hen Fever, date 1855. 



Burnham alleges that he fought against the 

 claims and the name of Brahmas, because he 

 always objected to the" needless multiplication " 

 of either breeds or names. It was felt that some 



