THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



tried the effect of mating Cochin pullets with 

 a hawk rooster. The results were cockerels re- 

 sembling the sire, but with more visible black 

 markings. Pullets were principally black, 

 only a very few resembling the male bird, and 

 even these much darker in color than the sire. 

 This mating was (on the authority of veteran 

 poultrymen like D. A. Upham of Wilsonville, 

 Conn., and the Rev. D. D. Bishop) the foun- 

 dation of the first American breed of fowls. 

 Mr. Upham procured two of the lighter pul- 

 lets and a cockerel, and for two or three 

 years he strove to improve the markings and 

 general type; then in 1869 showed them at 

 Worcester, Mass., under the name of Plym- 

 outh Rocks a name which Dr. Bennett of 

 Plymouth, Mass., had given to some birds 

 which he had manufactured prior to 1850, by 

 crossing Cochin China, Dorkings, Malays, 

 and Wild Indian. According to report, these 

 birds were not at all like the present Rocks, 

 and were, in 1869, extinct, so Mr. Upham was 

 at liberty to adopt the name without trenching 



335 



