132 DIFFERENT BREEDS OF POULTP.Y. 



gentle though lively expression. The legs are yellow in the Light 

 breed and in Dark cocks, slightly dusky yellow in the Dark hens. 



The economic merits of Brahmas are very high. When 

 not spoilt by breeding for exhibition, the pullets and hens are 

 capital layers, several instances being recorded in the earlier 

 days, and we ourselves having had two instances, of hens 

 which have laid over 200 eggs in a year. This, however, is 

 very unusual. They do not sit so often as Cochins when pure 

 bred, usually laying from twenty-five to forty eggs first. Both 

 fowls and chickens are hardy, and grow very fast, being early 

 ready for table. The pure race is also white or pinky, not yellow 

 in skin, and white in flesh; in fact, the race when unspoilt com- 

 pares almost exactly in the same way as the Langshan with 

 the modern Cochin, including the point of a deep breast. 

 Brahmas bear confinement quite as well as Cochins, being, 

 however, far more sprightly, and less liable on that account to 

 prejudicial internal fattening. 



Unfortunately, the extreme care in breeding for marking 

 during late years has very much impaired the laying qualities of 

 many exhibition strains, and also their constitution. It is still 

 more to be regretted, that an ignorant imitation of the Cochin 

 model has impaired to some extent the table qualities, the loose 

 lumpy plumage bringing coarse skin and coarse flesh, and the 

 want of breast losing one of the characteristic points of the fowl. 

 There are breeders and judges who adhere to the old model, 

 and it cannot be too much insisted upon. At the best, how- 

 ever, the flesh, though superior to that of the Cochin, is much 

 inferior after six months to that of the Dorking, and the pure 

 breed is not, therefore, a good market fowl. A cross with 

 Houdan, Creve, or Dorking produces, however, magnificent 

 birds, hardy as hardy can be, of most rapid growth, and carry- 

 ing immense quantities of meat. Such crosses should always 

 have the attention of the market raiser who does not succeed 

 with pure Dorkings. 



