1'LYMOITH ROCK STANDARD AM) KltEED BOOK 77 



but the more uniform breeds, the Black Polanders, the Minorcas, 

 and even the Spanish take a white speck, spot and even feathers, 

 when the fit is on them ; so with the Shanghaes. The breeder 

 may start in the Spring with buffs, cinnamons or partridge col- 

 ored parents and their progeny in November will display all the 

 colors of the rainbow, except, to be sure, the blue. Nay, they 

 may put on the affirmative of due proportions of the whole as 

 white, or the negative as black specimens." So strong is the 

 writer, who Richardson styles as an acute and experienced ama- 

 teur on this point, that he goes on, on page 87, to say that this 

 tendency to sport may be checked, but never, he believes, 

 subdued. 



From these statements, made as far back as 1851, we can 

 readily see what an opportunity any one had to produce in the 

 interval between about what they chose in color of Cochins. 



Page 74, after quoting Mr. Trotter, the prize essay from 

 Royal Agricultural Society in 1851, Richardson, referring to 

 that essay, comments upon the statements of the same as follows : 



"They are valuable, coming from a gentleman who has car- 

 ried off prizes for best Cochins, Dorkings, etc., at the Northum- 

 berland and Durham Society Shows." 



In a work on fowls published in London, England, 1860, John 

 Baily mentions these different kinds of Cochin-Chinas, Buff, 

 Lemon, Cinnamon, Grouse, Partridge, White and Black. This 

 corroborates the authors cited and others and, to reiterate it 

 would seem, if they had Black Cochins (or Shanghaes) in Eng- 

 land as early as 1851, that without question Black Cochins existed 

 in England and elsewhere long before the now famous Spaulding 

 cross was made, and if they were known in that country as early 

 as 1851, it is strongly probable that they were bred in this coun- 

 try long before Spaulding created the Plymouth Rock, because 

 there was so much in common between the poultry breeders of 

 the two countries and English importations of all new varieties 

 were the fad of those times. 



Black Cochins in America. But we are not compelled to rely 

 on the fact that B!ack Cochins existed in England, as we have 

 direct evidence that they were frequently met with in our earliest 

 American exhibitions. We submit letters from Mr. C. P. Nettle- 

 ton, who, at the time of writing, was a well known breeder of 

 Light Brahmas. The letters read as follows : 



