230 _ MR. J. T. CUNNINGHAM ON | Mar. 17, 
too, has longer tail-feathers than an ordinary hen, sometimes as 
long as 8 inches. One, or at most, two hens are allowed to each 
breeding-cock. The latter’s tail-feathers are cut to allow of his 
walking about freely. He lives a little longer than the others 
which must be kept shut up; but all are hardy, bearing both heat 
and cold. The ordinary number of long tail-feathers is 15 or 16, 
some cocks have as many as 24, 
The tail-feathers must not be wound up, as people ignorantly do 
away from Kochi, but must always be allowed to hang free; for 
which reason the cocks are kept in high, narrow cages, quite dark 
except at the top, for light at the bottom would attract them. 
When the tail-feathers become too long and touch the ground in 
the cage, a bamboo is put a little way back so as to form an arch 
and make more distance. The birds sit all day on a flat perch 
3 inches wide, and are only taken out once in two or three days 
and allowed to walk about for half an hour or so, a man holding 
the tail all the while to prevent its getting torn or soiled. 
The high, narrow cages may be made of any wood; they are 
64 feet high, 3 feet deep, and 6 inches wide. The wonderful 
feathers both on tail and body come from quills much stouter than 
any possessed by ordinary fowls. 
The price in Kochi was 15 dollars for a cock with tail under 
10 feet, 25 dollars over that length. 
There is absolutely no artificial method of making the feathers 
grow. Allis done by selection. Any failure is due to not having 
a hen or parents of the proper breed. Also one must know how 
to treat the birds. 
At Kobe in November 1898 Mr. Chamberlain saw three speci- 
mens, one with tail-feathers 133 feet long. He also saw a splendid 
white tail 103 feet long, which had been pulled out from a white 
bird owing to its falling off its perch and fluttering about. The bird 
was five years old, and the feathers were growing again. Thefancier 
said that the feathers in young birds grow about 4 inchesa month, 
in older birds more, up to 7 inches a month. 
Two photographs are given with the paper, but no reference to 
them is made in the text. The tails are very long, but there are 
no long feathers from the shoulders, only tail- and saddle- or 
rump-hackles. 
It is evident that Mr. Chamberlin, although his observations are 
of considerable value, was not an experienced naturalist, and that 
he is simply reporting what he was told. He says nothing about 
the combs of the fowls he saw. With regard to his assertions 
about selection as the sole means by which the breed has been 
produced, it is to be noted that he is evidently referring in the 
case of the Haku chiefly or entirely to colour. The Haku isa 
white variety, and Mr. Rice, above mentioned, also has a strain 
of this colour. Nearly all domesticated birds and animals vary in 
colour, and nothing is easier-than to separate a white variety in 
fowls, horses, pigeons, dogs, &c. These fowls, like others, vary 
in colour; and the question before us now is not the separation of 
