" n.YAIOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BRKKH HOOK 75 



which would appear to be true, inasmuch as there was at that 

 time no such thing as a Standard Java, which we did not have 

 until 1883. The fact is, Plymouth Rocks antedated Javas in the 

 Standard. 



The argument most often advanced in favor of the Java 

 theory is that the Black Cochin was unknown in America or at 

 the best was so very scarce that it would not have been used 

 in all probability or possibility. A writer, himself a student of 

 Cochins and Asiatics particularly, makes the following state- 

 ment in the May 15, 1901, issue of the Farm Poultry, published 

 for many years in Boston : 



"Black Cochins were so very scarce from the start that the 

 few in existence were bred with Whites and Buffs to increase, 

 improve and invigorate them. Their original quality was not the 

 equal of the others. This cross-breeding injured their color so 

 much that for many years they were almost discarded. If the 

 English, who were so directly in business communciation with 

 China, could not obtain Black Cochins, how could it be possible 

 for Mr. Giles to import them? At the same time, what were 

 known then as Black Javas are mentioned continually, and they 

 were, without doubt, what would be called an Asiatic fowl 

 largely Malay. 



"Without any word from us we feel that the records fully 

 prove that the Dominique fowl has at all times in America been 

 known as such (the other names applied here have been errone- 

 ously used) ; that the facts show that the Spaulding or original 

 Plymouth Rock came as the result of crossing these American 

 Dominiques with what is known as Black Javas." 



The scarcity or non-existence of Black Cochin seems to be 

 the actual basis of the Java theory, though we find inference 

 that Mrs. Spaulding was originally responsible for its circulation. 



In regard to the references to the Upham-Ramsdell contro- 

 versy and their rival claims to priority, the particulars of which 

 none of them state, the writer cannot find that such a contro- 

 versy exists or ever has. Neither did Mr. Upham in his con- 

 versation with the writer bring up the question of whether he or 

 Ramsdell was the first to purchase of Spaulding. There is the 

 possibility, of course, that Ramsdell purchased first and another 

 possibility that Upham in that case might have procured his 

 stock of Ramsdell. He says, however, in his first account, here- 



