143 



exhibition no other oriental variety than the Malays. In fact we 

 never met with any published notice of the Shanghae fowls until 

 1846, and we shall be near the truth if we assign 1845 as the year 

 they were first imported. It was in that year that Her Majesty 

 received specimens of them which she exhibited at the Show of the 

 Royal Dublin Agricultural Society, in the April of 1846." 



The conclusion respecting the date of the introduction of the 

 Queen's fowls, as expressed in the above paragraph, is erroneous. 

 In the autumn of 1843, the London Times noticed them as being 

 then " in Her Majesty's aviary at Windsor." It was stated that 

 there were " seven Cochin-China fowls, five hens and two cocks, 

 imported direct from Asia." That they came from "Asia" there 

 is no doubt, but the propriety of calling them" Cochin-China fowls " 

 does not appear. The Times goes on to describe the fowls, and 

 makes a strange blunder by confounding them with the Fire-backed 

 Pheasant of China.* The importation alluded to is worthy of note, 

 as constituting the original leaven which has since leavened the 

 whole lump of admirers of that kind of fowl in England and 

 America. 



Many readers will recollect that one of the distinctions which in 

 this country has been claimed between the so-.called Cochin-China 

 and Shanghae fowls, was that the former were destitute of feathers 

 on the legs, while the latter were said to be feathered to the toes. 

 But every one who has seen many fowls imported from Shanghae, 

 knows that there can be no foundation for this claim, as both feathered 

 and unfeathered legs are often found in the fowls obtained at that 

 place. The name of Cochin-China has, however, been given to 

 fowls in some instances without even the pretence of this distinc- 

 tion to justify it. One of the first importations of the Shanghaes 

 to this country, — that of Dr. Baylies, of Taunton, — were 

 called CochinChinas by a notorious person who subsequently ob- 

 tained the stock, although he was expressly told by Dr. Baylies that 

 the fowls came from Shanghae ! 



We recur again to the work before us : 



" Having thus traced out the date of the introduction and the 

 place whence derived, let us next inquire something of the char- 



See Albany CultiTalor for 1844, p. 43. 



