WHITE LEGHORN AND BUFF COCHIN. 



41 



in the year 1847. The earliest importations were buff. According to 

 McGrew (1904, p. 526) : 



In many of these retreats, >«;-,i«s or niotiasterie^, thousands of specimens of Ruff and 

 Partridge China I Cochin) fowls are annually raised, and in other places the colors are 

 mised. The Kinkee (gold flower) colored birds are the most esteemed, both as regards 

 antiquity and purity. . . . Hoangho is the oldest [of the] iiii-aus, and its records show 

 that this same race of fowls was cultivated by the brotherhood 1,500 years ago. 



Buff and Partridge Cochins are indigenous to the temperate and more southerly por- 

 tions of the empire. This is corroborated by naturalists and travelers. Mr. Gabb, the 

 well-known English naturalist, says : "According to my view, a black or white Cochin is 

 an improbability, if not an impassibility, as a natural product of a tropical or subtropical 

 region. The natural color of the feathers of the poultry in the zone of Cochin China 

 would be buff or yellow, or some of the varieties of these colors, but never black or 

 white, except by accidental variation." 



Other testimony presented by the same author is of the same sort and 



establishes the fact that Buff Cochins are a primitive, foundation race of 



great antiquity. 



Table of characteristics. 



REMARKS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS. 



I. General Plumage Color. — The buff color of the Cochin is, as has 

 been shown above, of high antiquitj'. From the Buff Cochin it has been 

 transferred to many other breeds by crossing. Thus there are Buff Wyan- 

 dottes, of which McGrew says (1901, p. 24): " Two distinct lines were pro- 

 duced under different methods. One was formed from Wyandotte-Buff 

 Cochin cross ; the other came through the Rhode Island Red-Wyandotte 

 cross." The Rhode Island Red is, however, as is well known, a direct 

 descendant of the Buff Cochin. The Buff Plymouth Rocks were derived 

 directly or indirectly from the Buff Cochin (McGrew, 1901, p. 25). The 

 history of the Buff Leghorn is the same — the offspring of a yellow Danish 

 Leghorn cock and Buff Cochin pullets mated with a yellow Leghorn hen. 

 The produce, three-fourths Yellow Leghorn and one- fourth Buff Cochin, 

 gave* " the first Buff Leghorns ever shown." The Buff " Orpingtons "— 

 a highly modern and mongrel breed— have a similar history, being chiefly 

 Buff Cochin and Dorking (Wright, 1902, p. 296). 



The origin of the buff as it occurs in the Cochins can only be guessed at ; 

 but there are important facts to be considered. First, it appears that the 

 buff color is very inconstant even in China. Says a traveler : " No two can 



'Wyckoff, 1904, p. 527. 



