38 THEDOMESTICFOWL. 



appearance in our days. Are they new species, the result of 

 clever combination and nurture, or of mere chance ? Not con- 

 ceiving that they are any thing new under the sun, although 

 long unknown to us, I answer at once, No. The mercantile 

 enterprise and trading voyages of the English, Dutch, Spaniards, 

 and Portuguese, are quite sufficient to explain their arrival, 

 without having recourse to a new creation. It is strange that 

 any new or remarkable breed, like Sir J. Sebright's Bantams, 

 or the Duke of Leeds' Shackbag, should invariably first appear 

 in the poultry -yards of the wealthy, and not in the homestead 

 of the small farmer or the cottager. The lately introduced 

 Cochin China Fowl, about which there is no mystery, and of 

 which her majesty has just reason to be proud, is a case in 

 point. But it is not strange or unlikely that gentlemen who 

 have succeeded in obtaining some exotic variety, should choose 

 to conceal the source and the channel by which it came into 

 their hands, or even take credit for having themselves raised 

 and generated a breed which excited the curiosity and admira- 

 tion of their neighbours. There are several varieties that are 

 extinct, or not to be obtained in this country, as the above- 

 mentioned Duke of Leeds' Fowl, and the White Poland Fowl 

 with a black top-knot.* Attempts have been made to repro- 

 duce them, both by the most promising systems of crossing, 

 and by acting on the imagination of breeding Fowls, after the 

 manner of Jacob's experiments with Laban's flocks ; all in 

 vain. We can easily understand how certain points in any 

 race can be confirmed and made more conspicuous by selection 

 and breeding in and in, but we are at a loss to know how to 

 go to work to produce something quite original and new. If 

 these lost varieties do reappear, and they are both worth the 

 trouble they may give, it will probably be by a fresh importa- 

 tion from their original Indian home. 



* I seriously doubt the existence of any such fowl. ED. 



