Judging Cochins. 



2X\ 



a broody hen at night, she will take to them next day ; and many instances are also recorded of 

 even Cochin cocks making exemplary foster-parents for orphan chickens, not only at night, but 

 taking all the care of them in the day-time that a mother would have done. As a rule, in fact, 

 Cochins seem of a really genuine affectionate disposition, which gives great pleasure in watching 

 their ways and habits, and accounts in great part for the fondness with which they are nearly 

 always regarded by their owners. 



Their large frame and hardy constitution make Cochins to some extent valuable as a cross ; 

 but such experiments need judgment. To turn a Cochin cock into the ordinary stock of a farm- 

 yard is to ensure certain deterioration, the progeny being invariably a race of coarse, weedy, 

 long-legged brutes, which no poulterer will look at, and no one will eat if they can help it. There 

 are however three good crosses, in all of which the Cochin hen and foreign cock should be 

 employed to obtain the desired result. The first is with a compact Dorking, which produces very 

 large and pretty hardy birds, which mature early, and make splendid table fowls for family use ; 

 but being rather coarse in frame and generally showing traces of feather on the legs, are not so 

 well adapted for good town markets, though this prejudice may be and has been overcome. The 

 next is with the Crevecoeur, which produces really splendid table fowls, tolerably fine in bone, but 

 of quick growth and of great weight. These, too, are tolerably hardy, but so far as we can judge 

 from various reports, not quite so much so as the Dorking cross. The third is with the Houdan 

 cock. The produce of this last is the best layer of all the crosses named, but is generally of a 

 very "common" appearance so far as plumage goes. The carcase is not so large as either of the 

 other crosses, but is of good quality and quickly matured ; it is perhaps somewhat inferior in 

 breast-meat to the two others. The chickens of this cross cannot be surpassed in hardihood by 

 any fowls whatever. 



We might add that the American breeds known as Dominiques and Leghorns have very 

 evidently been produced originally by crossing Cochins with either Scotch Greys or Cuckoo 

 Dorkings for the Dominiques, and Spanish for the Leghorns ; but in these cases the new race 

 has been fixed by subsequent careful breeding. Plymouth Rocks, Danvers Whites, and nearly 

 if not all the other American breeds, also owe much to a Cochin cross, 



JUDGING COCHINS. — Before entering into any details, we may make the general remark 

 that in deciding upon the merits of good Cochin classes, it is above all things necessary that the 

 judge should have in his mind's eye an intuitive perception, so habitual as to be almost instinctive, 

 of the more specific "Cochin" characters. For want of this we have seen many mistakes made, 

 especially in small shows. The" purest colour cannot atone for a marked deficiency in that square 

 and, as Mr. Tomlinson aptly calls it, "lumpy" development, with the fine, gentle-looking, truly 

 aristocratic head, which always distinguish the truly high-caste Cochin. A broad and rising saddle 

 in the cock and ample cushion in the hen are especially to be looked for, and when in any 

 degree of perfection will very rarely be found dissociated from fine fluff, leg-feather, and other 

 characteristic points; so that the task of the judge as regards estimating the "symmetry" or 

 proportion of the birds is more simple than it would be did not this rule generally hold good. 

 The rule as to the quality of the ear-lobe laid down by Mr. Hewitt in page 229 may also be of 

 great assistance. The minor points will give much more trouble, and will demand to be considered 

 more in detail- by any but a very experienced judge, if he would have his decisions to be satisfactory 

 to himself and the public. 



We have already made some general remarks upon the real place and value of a "Standard 

 of Excellence," with its scale of points. Every judge must have some notion in his mind of the 



