TYPES, BREEDS, AND VARIETIES OF FOWLS 385 



varieties has been largely the work of English and American 

 fanciers, the student of the subject can at once see the reason- 

 ableness of supposing that precisely the same thing is true of the 

 Asiatic races. The present resemblances between these races 

 indicate very close relationship. Resemblances between earlier 

 types even types familiar to men still under middle age 

 confirm this view. An examination of old descriptions and pic- 

 tures brings the types still closer together. The testimony of 

 early breeders as to the instability of color and comb shows plainly 

 the condition of the stock for some time after the type began 

 to be popular. And, finally, a description of the type as "one of 

 the usual breeds or races raised in the United States " was pub- 

 lished in "The American Poultry Book" in 1843, two years 

 before the first importation of Shanghais from China to England, 

 and three years before the first importation of " Brahmaputras " 

 to the United States. The race, at that time called Malay, is thus 

 described : " This is the largest of our breeds. Dampier says that 

 he saw one of this breed so large, that, standing on the floor, it 

 picked up crumbs from the table. They are mostly yellowish or 

 reddish brown. The eggs are large and well-flavored. The flesh 

 of the chicken is not very delicate, and is better adapted to broth 

 than anything else ; in the adult it is coarse and stringy. They 

 make large capons, but are considered to be very indifferent layers 

 and not very steady sitters." 



This description fits the Yellow Shanghai, the progenitor of the 

 modern Buff Cochin, very much better than it does the Malay Game. 

 Though the Asiatics have the reputation of being most persistent 

 sitters, the broody quality is by no means universal in the race, and 

 there are other descriptions of the early types which agree with 

 this. It is to be noted also that while buff or brown is given as 

 the prevailing tone of color, the description implies a variety of 

 colors, and this is in accord with the statements of other writers a 

 few years later. It is not necessary here to go into an extended 

 analysis of these statements. Together they establish a probability 

 that the Asiatic type, called in America and Europe by a variety 

 of names, was a common fowl over a wide area of Asia, and that 

 the type, though found in parts of India, was probably first developed 

 by the Chinese. What is known of the development of other types 



