80 CHITTAGONG FOWLS. 



show that they are identical with Chittngongs, and Chittagongs 

 with grey Shanghaes, thus described this breed in Dr. Bennett's 

 Poultry Book, in 1850: 



" The Chittagong is a very superior bird, showy in plumage, coura- 

 geous, and exceedingly hardy. The color of mine is grey, generally, 

 interspersed with lightish yellow and white feathers, upon the pullets. 

 The rooster is grey body; the wings, hackles, back and rump feathers, 

 a silvery yellow, tinted with stray light brown and white ; the tail and 

 breast are nearly black. 



"The legs of this fowl are of a reddish flesh-color; the meat is deli- 

 cately white; the combs, large and single; wattles, very full; wings, 

 good size. The legs are more or less feathered ; the model is graceful ; 

 carriage, proud and easy ; action, prompt and determined." 



Here we have a true description of the Chittagongs. The 

 reader will please note the colors, " grey" " yelloiv" " brown" 

 and " black" and then turn to the description of the Brahma 

 Pootras, by the same gentlemen, in this work, written in 1852, 

 in which not one word in regard to "brown" "yellow" and 

 " black" appears, and he can judge the merits of the case 

 without any comment of mine. The truth is, the Chittagongs 

 are a large, clumsy fowl, with no other merit, except size, when 

 compared with our best breeds. Geo. A. Smith, Esq., of Geo., 

 in speaking of various breeds of fowls, in a communication to 

 me, says : 



" They are a large, lazy fowl. I think them poor layers and bad 

 sitters, and are pretty sure to have the gout. I should not advise any 

 one to have them." 



The size of these fowls is nearly equal to our largest breeds, 

 weighing from eighteen to twenty pounds per pair, when 

 eighteen months old. Dr. Kerr says, in his work : 



"In and around Philadelphia, we have a large fowl, to which the 

 above name has been incorrectly given, as, on further acquaintance, it 

 has proved to be a mongrel, and like most mongrels, comparatively 

 worthless. Until within a short time, it went under various names, 

 as Ostrich Fowl, the Turkey breed, the Big breed, the Booby, the 

 Bucks County Fowl, and even the Malay. It is difficult to trace its 

 history. Some forty years ago, several large fowls were brought hither 

 from different parts of China, the East Indies, and the adjacent isles ; 

 subsequently, and within a few years, others were added. These all, 

 except in a very few cases, have been mixed, and breed indiscrimi- 

 nately ; and the result is the fowl to which, a cording to the caprice 

 of the people, the above names have been applied. It is of all colors, 

 from black to white, frequently speckled, sometimes red and black, and 

 again dun. When bred, it will generally produce its like in point of size, 

 but rarely in point of color, showing it, unquestionably, to be a mixture 

 of several original breeds. They are not very good layers, though their 



