34 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



highly exaggerated, that they must lead to disappoint- 

 ment, and cause the breed to be as much undeservedly 

 underrated, as it had been before foolishly extolled. 

 The size and weight ascribed to them, too, are enor- 

 mous. To give an idea of their height and magnitude, 

 they have been styled the " ostrich fowl." This is an 

 old, but very bad system of giving names, to affix that 

 of some other animal, indicating certain supposed 

 qualities ; for such appellations are apt to induce 

 notions of relationship, or hybridity, which are not easily 

 removed from the minds of the many. 



The Cochin- China cock has a large, upright, single, 

 deeply-indented comb, very much resembling that of 

 the black Spanish, and when in high condition of quite 

 as brilliant a scarlet; like him, also, he has a very 

 large, white ear lobe on each cheek. The wattles are 

 large, wide, and pendant. The legs are of a pale-flesh 

 color. The feathers on the breast and sides are of a 

 bright chestnut-brown, large and well denned, giving 

 a scaly or imbricated appearance to those parts. In 

 some birds, there is a horse-shoe marking on the breast, 

 caused by a darker shade, and which increases, and 

 perhaps comes, with age. The hackle of the neck is 

 of a light yellowish-brown ; the lower feathers being 

 tipped with dark-brown, so as to give a spotted appear- 

 ance to the neck. The tail feathers are black, and 

 darkly iridescent ; back, scarlet-orange ; back hackle, 

 yellow-orange. It is, in short, altogether a flame- 

 colored bird. Both sexes are lower in the leg than 

 either the black Spanish or the Malay, and they are 

 remarkably full feathered. 



It has incorrectly been asserted, that "the disposition 

 of the feathers on the back of the cock's neck is reversed, 

 these being turned upwards; the wing is jointed, so 

 that the posterior half can, at pleasure, be doubled up, 

 and brought forward between the anterior half and the 

 body ;" the only foundation for which absurdity, is, 

 that in some of the half-grown cockerels, certain 

 feathers, the wing coverts, curl forwards : but the 



