THE COCHIN CHINA FOWL. 159 



have had their edible qualities much tested. Most persons 

 would prefer gratifying a friend with the living, rather than 

 their own palate with the dead birds. But they are equal or 

 superior to any other Fowl for the table : their flesh is deli- 

 cate, white, tender, and well-flavoured. 



The Cochin China Fowl are said to have been presented to 

 her Majesty, Queen Victoria, from the East Indies, and, by 

 her liberality, imparted to such persons in the country as were 

 likely properly to appreciate them. It is delightful to see so 

 good an example in communicating a valuable stock, and also 

 in aiding Natural History by making no secret of the source 

 whence it was derived, although, as we have seen, they are 

 really no novelty. The shape and size of the Eggs of the 

 Cochin China Fowl, their qualifications as layers and mothers, 

 the frequency of the fifth toe* among them, and their general 

 build and carriage, point out their very near relationship to 

 the Dorkings : they are, in truth, the Dorkings of India. In 

 the west of England there has lately been introduced an extra- 

 sized variety of Fowl called the American, (and really im- 

 ported from America,) but derived from what original source 

 we cannot yet trace. These, however, do not exhibit marks 

 of much distinctness of race or purity of blood, except their 

 vast bulk, but display traces of both the Malay and the Cochin 

 China type, inclining in the best specimens to the latter, with 

 a probable intermixture of Dorking or Spanish blood. Such 

 birds, except during their early youth, would suit the purposes 

 of Chinese cooks, with whom sinews and tendons form the 

 great delicacies of the table, rather than of English artists, 

 who prefer to exercise their skill on what will furnish a suffi- 

 ciency of tender meat. Still, they suggest the idea that it may 

 be found more profitable, in crossing for the larder, to cioss 

 constantly two large breeds, than to go on with one pure 

 breed ; exactly as, in raising a supply of sheep for the butcher, 

 the first cross between the Leicester and the Southdown 



