ASIATIC FOWLS. 



97 



found it all over the low country of that part 

 of China. The southern breeds have been 

 long well known to ship captains and English 

 residents ; but there is nothing very marked in 

 their character.' 



" We have already stated that we do not be- 

 lieve that there are any grounds for the belief 

 that this variety ever saw Cochin-China ; and 

 we think, with Mr. Fortune (for this question 

 is indicative as well as inquisitive), that they 

 were introduced into this country soon after the 

 more northern parts of 'The Celestial Empire,' 

 such as Shanghai, were thrown open to our trad- 

 ers, at the conclusion of the Chinese Avar, in 

 L843. At the poultry show held at the Zoolog- 

 ical Gardens in the May of 1845, there were 

 prizes especially devoted to 'Malay and other 

 Asiatic breeds;' but these brought to the exhi- 

 bition no other Oriental variety than Malays, 

 and, we may add, that at that time Shanghai 

 fowls were unknown to the Society. In fact, 

 we shall be near the truth if we assign 1845 as 

 the year in which they were first imported. It 

 was in that year that her Majesty received speci- 

 mens of them, which she exhibited at the Show 

 of the Royal Dublin Agricultural Society, in 

 April, 1846. Even in 1847, Mr. Walter Dix- 

 on, in his volume on 'Poultry, their Breeding, 

 etc.,' does not mention this variety. Mr. Moody, 

 of Droxford, in Hampshire, obtained his first 

 Shanghai fowls in 1847; and Mr. Sturgeon, of 

 Grays, Essex, accidentally became possessed of 

 his stock during the same year. From the above 

 mentioned stocks, with admixtures from fresh 

 importations, have been derived the yards of 

 SJianghais now becoming so numerous. 



"Mr. Sturgeon gives the following details: 

 ' The history of my Cochins is a very absurd tale, 

 and full of ill-luck, or perhaps carelessness a 

 term for which ill-luck is often substituted. I 

 got them in 1847, from a ship in the West India 

 Docks. A clerk we employed at that time hap- 

 pened to go on board, and, struck by the appear- 

 ance of the birds, bought them on his own re- 

 sponsibility, and at what I, when I came to hear 

 of it, denounced as a most extravagant price 

 some six or eight shillings each ! Judge of my 

 surprise, after my extravagance, when I found 

 a younger brother had, immediately on their ar- 

 G 



rival, killed two out of the five, leaving me one 

 cockerel and two pullets ; nor was my annoy- 

 ance diminished on hearing him quickly remark 

 that they were very young, fat, and heavy, and 

 would never have got any better! The cock 

 shortly after died, and, beyond inquiring for an- 

 other, which I succeeded in obtaining shortly 

 after the original died, together with a number 

 of hens which reached this country under pecul- 

 iar circumstances, I personally took but little 

 interest in them till the eve before their depart- 

 ure for Birmingham in 1850. Neither my broth- 

 er nor myself, before we obtained these birds, 

 had taken any particular interest in poultry, and 

 why we came to prefer the light-colored birds 

 remains a mystery to me ; but so it was, for to 

 Mr. Punchard, and to all others, we parted with 

 none but the smaller and darker-colored birds. 

 I have often laughed at the dreadful passes my 

 own famous breed has been reduced to, and 

 the very narrow escapes it has had of utter ex- 

 tinction first the attack of my brother already 

 narrated; then the death of the cock; and in 

 the third year, the desperate incursions of some 

 mischievous greyhound puppies, who killed one 

 morning five young birds just as they were get- 

 ting feathered, besides many more on different 

 occasions. Our birds all came from Shanghai, 

 and were feather-legged. It is to the cock of 

 the second lot that I attribute our great success. 

 I have had fifty others since, in four or five lots, 

 but not a bird worthy of comparison with my 

 old ones, or that I would mix with them.' 



"Having thus traced out the date of intro- 

 duction and the place whence derived, let us 

 next inquire something of the characteristics 

 and treatment of the birds as they occur at 

 Shanghai itself; and here Mr. Fortune again 

 comes to our aid. In the letter already quoted 

 he says, 'The Shanghai breed occurs both with 

 feathered and unfeathered legs, but more fre- 

 quently unfeathered. The most admired kind-- 

 | there are the game-colored ones. Many of 

 them are much like the pheasant of the coun- 

 try ; indeed, we used to think that crosses were 

 often produced between the pheasant and the 

 fowl, as the former were often seen feeding with 

 the latter. However, I am safe in saying that 

 the Chinese do not attach so much importance 



