COCHIN-CHINAS.] 



POULTRY. 



[COCHIN-CHINA-S. 



nnd time immemorial, that the domestic races 

 oi poultry vary their plumage ad infinitum. Not 

 only do white or black Bantams, cuckoo-Dork- 

 ings, and game-fowls sjjot't in the feather, 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 spring with buffs, cinna- 

 mons, or partridge-coloured parents, and their 

 progeny in November will display all the 

 colours of the rainbow, except, to be sure, the 

 blue. Nay, tJiei/ may put 07i the affirmative of 

 due proportions of the whole as white, or the 

 negative as black specimens. The yard may be 

 kept to one colour by cutting the sporters, and 

 the propensity to sport may be checked, but, 

 I believe, never subdued. Pancy must direct 

 choice in colours, and the leading fanciers will 

 give the eclaf to their preferred colour. It is 

 true that the lighter tints are of the more deli- 

 cate feathers, perhaps of the more delicate 

 flesh. But the dark birds are the finest, 

 largest, and, almost invariably, the fairest 

 specimens, which are, at the same time, of 

 good growth and weight, of good buff colour, 

 and so rare, that the}^ are very highly prized. 



" The Cochin- China, or Shanghae fowl, which 

 has made so great a noise, and brought about 

 so great a revolution in poultry-yards and 

 poultry shows of late years, may possibly retire 

 from public estimation with no less silence and 

 rapidity. Eor, unquestioned as its novelty of 

 form, beauty of plumage, and gentleness of 

 disposition and manners are, its usefulness as 

 a supply for the tables of the upper classes, 

 though not as a contributor to the couch and 

 the pillow, by its soft and silky redundancy of 

 fluff and feather, have been long under anxious 

 consideration. It is well to speak of the 

 game-like flavour of its delightful flesh, and to 

 dilate on the pounds avoirdupois which they in- 

 dividually rise to. Is it as well to be silent 

 ■upon the large proportion of offal ? — to ignore 

 the fact of the boasted game-like flavour being 

 unattended by the shortness of substance so 

 acceptable to the rcflned palate? — to be blind 

 to the colour, and insensible to the pachy- 

 dermy ? Regarding them as such exceedingly 

 pleasant inhabitants of the yard, and orna- 

 mental to the lawn and the pleasure-grounds, 

 we grieve over the defects we are bound in 

 832 



candour to admit. The frequent announce- 

 ments of salesmen and auctioneers, of whole 

 stocks and yards to be disposed of, is far from 

 a disallowance, much less a contradiction, of 

 our position. 



" In respect to size and weight, there is 

 much solid ground for scepticism. Doubtless 

 there have been individuals of large develop- 

 ments, with legs several inches in length and 

 three in girth, and a great length of middle claw, 

 which would be important iteins if reducible to 

 broth or jelly ; but such growths are not aver- 

 age, or even usual. In my own yard, and 

 in every other I have inspected, I have seen 

 nothing approaching these models. I do 

 not say that Mr. Sturgeon may not, out of ten 

 or twenty scores of annual produce, have been 

 able to select a very few of such specimens as, 

 at the second or third year, may have reached 

 twelve pounds in the male, and nine in the 

 i'emale ; but even that gentleman, the spirited 

 and highly commendable proprietor of the 

 breed, does not achieve or speak of more. I 

 have heard mention of even greater weights. 

 Inspection has convinced me of the soundness 

 of the late Lord Althorp's advice to gra- 

 ziers, ' Not to look at their own cattle with 

 too much partiality,' so as to see them in 

 points of view which sober eyes cannot find 

 or allow. I think I should not be hazard- 

 ing too much to say, that the weight of 

 Shanghaes does not absolutely exceed that of 

 the finest Dorkings; and, relatively to use — 

 sinking the ofliil — would fall below it. I 

 have possessed both in their best forms and 

 degrees. 



" The propensity to incubation, in the female 

 of this breed, is so remarkable, so persevering, 

 so irremediable, that, while it would make a 

 \Q\; hens desirable to the general breeder, it is 

 a serious drawback to them as sale stock. 

 They begin to lay their winter supply of not 

 large, but delicious eggs in the midst or end of 

 November, and lay regularly, for six or eight 

 weeks, one egg a day. Then they assume the 

 broody humour, and are with difficulty diverted 

 from their purpose. After some eight or ten 

 days' seclusion, they reappear as layers to 

 the extent of from ten to twenty eggs, when 

 they again claim the sweets of maternity. 

 Then you cannot easily turn them from 

 their purpose. I have frequently taken hens 



