VARIETIES OF DOMESTIC FOWL. 49 



no more expensive to keep than the common hens, while they 

 are about twice as large, better layers, less destructive to 

 gardens, more docile and tractable, and very tender of their 

 young. Their meat is fine and highly flavored. They usu- 

 ally commence laying at from six to seven months old. Their 

 eggs are of a reddish or mahogany color, and of delicious flavor. 

 They are very large, and Mr. Howard writes me that a pair 

 of last year's chickens, in his neighborhood, now weigh 

 eighteen and a half pounds. The plumage of these fowls is 

 exceedingly rich and variegated, usually brown or yellow: 

 the cockerels are generally red. Their wings and tails are 

 very short ; their legs are very large, and of a yellow, blue, 

 green, or whitish color, and frequently lightly, and sometimes 

 heavily feathered ; for depth of breast and quarter they excel 

 most other fowls, and they are healthy, quiet, and much 

 attached to home. The skin of the Cochin China, when young, 

 is of a light pinkish color, as seen in its partially denuded state, 

 near the butt of the wing ; this, however, becomes paler with 

 age, and fades into an ivory or yellowish white. 



The difference between the Baylies importation and the 

 Royal fowls is first observed in the size. The Royal fowls 

 are one third larger, but those of the Baylies importation have 

 the finest flesh. Both varieties undoubtedly proceeded from tbe 

 same original stock, namely, a mixture of the Chittagong and 

 Shanghais. The royal breed, probably, is derived from the 

 Gray Chittagong and Yellow Shanghae, and the other from the 

 Red Chittagong and the Shanghae. Many of the Forbes 

 importation of Shanghaes were not true to their names, but 

 were really Cochin Chinas, of the Royal breed. Specimens of 

 these may be found in possession of Messrs. Hyde, Alden, and 

 others. The fowls of the Baylies importation have darker 

 plumage, generally, than the Royal fowls, which is to be 

 attributed to their different parentage on the Chittagong side. 



