I'LYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 79 



seen that, excepting the change of color again, they represent 

 the same formed fowl from beak to toes the true Shanghae, 

 though ebony-hued." 



Bement, in the 1863 edition of the American Poulterers' Com- 

 panion, gives a variety of Shanghaes (afterwards called 

 Cochins), Buff, Yellow, Cinnamon, White, Gray, Black and Part- 

 ridge colored. Here is a mention of Black Cochins in an Ameri- 

 can work at a date prior to the first cross ; and in another but a 

 few years after that event in the Hand Book of Poultry, pub- 

 lished by Pettingill, Bates & Co., New York, that mentions nine 

 varieties of Cochins, Buff, Lemon, Silver, Silver Cinnamon, Cin- 

 namon, Partridge, Grouse, Gray, White and Black. 



More evidence along this line is available but enough has 

 been cited to conclusively prove that Black Cochins were bred 

 in America long enough before the event of the Plymouth Rock 

 to permit of their use in the original cross. 



Were Cochins and Javas the Same Fowl? Just why there 

 has been so much misunderstanding about this ancestry and why 

 the Java has been so often cited as a parent of the first American 

 breed seems strange indeed, but Mr. Nettleton drops a salient 

 hint in his letter: "They were called by most people Black Javas, 

 had feathered legs," etc. From this statement we may clearly 

 deduce the fact that the terms Black Cochin and Black Java were 

 interchangeable at that period, and of this fact it is possible to 

 find much more evidence. 



The Premium Lists of the Nashua (New Hampshire) and 

 Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) shows for the year 1871 contain the 

 following lines in their classification of breeds to which prizes 

 would be awarded. 



BLACK COCHINS (OR JAVAS) 



This classification in this form can have but one interpreta- 

 tion, namely : That the two names stood for the same fowl ; that 

 they were so considered, and further, that the term Java was 

 considered to have been incorrectly applied by the best authori- 

 ties of the day is brought out by the fact that the term "Java" 

 was dropped by the first standard makers and the term "Cochin" 

 used. Black Cochins are described in the first standard and in 

 every standard that has followed it, down to the present time, 

 but Javas were not admitted and described until the 1883 edition 

 was published. 



Mr. I. K. Felch has called attention to this bit of history sev- 

 eral times. One of his articles appeared in the Poultry Monthly, 



