POULTRY. 385 



demonstration of a distinct breed. Henceforth it must be held 

 to be a mere matter of taste. 



"Mr. Fortune's testimony settles another disputed point. It 

 is very evident that, except as a matter of taste, the light 

 colored should have no preeminence over the darker plumaged ; 

 and those societies have acted judiciously which have given 

 separate prizes of equal value to all the subvarieties of color. 

 It is judicious, because it is needlessly placing a judge in a 

 very perplexing pasition to call upon him to decide upon speci- 

 mens of equal merit in all important points, but differing in 

 color." 



The work then speaks of the black, white, gray, (or so-called 

 "Brahma Pootra,") buff, cinnamon, and partridge or grouse- 

 colored Shanghaes as subvarieties of one breed. In regard 

 to the "Brahma Pootras," specimens of which, introduced 

 from this country, are known to the authors, — their "history" 

 is summed up by an expression of the opinion "that it will not 

 prove a distinct breed, but either a variety of the Shanghae 

 family, or the result of a cross between those birds and the 

 Malay." This is just what they are known to be in this coun- 

 try. Some of them came from Shanghae, and some are a cross 

 of these and the " Chittagong," a term which, as used by Eng- 

 lish authors on poultry, is only a synonym of Malay. Hence 

 they were at first, and still are in many places, merely called 

 " Chittagongs." 



In reference to names of fowls, there is another matter which 

 it is well to notice in this connection. In the United States, 

 the term Hamburg is often applied to fowls with crests or top- 

 knots. Late English writers do not use the term. According 

 to the classification adopted by the work above noticed, and 

 which prevails with the British poultry societies, all top- 

 knots are placed under the head of Poland fowls, and are 

 subdivided according to coloring and certain minor distinctions 

 — as White Polands ; Black Polands with white tops ; Silver 

 Polands, (those having a silvery-white ground color;) Golden 

 Polands, (having a yellow ground color,) with other classes for 

 such as have beards and muffs. 



Hamburg fowls, on the other hand, have no top-knots. 

 Under this head are placed, what in this country are called 

 49* 



