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CHAPTER XIX. 



BRAHMAS. 



The controversy which was carried on so long and so keenly regarding the original source of the 

 Brahma fowl is chiefly interesting in so far as it bears upon the more general subject of the origin 

 of varieties or species ; which latter has, owing to the more recently developed views of Mr. Darwin 

 and his disciples, become one of the important questions amongst scientific men of the present day. 

 To support the doctrine of the development or evolution of distinct varieties or species from pre- 

 existing species, it is of much importance to collect any evidence which may be obtainable tending 

 to authenticate actual examples of this process ; and though the creation of a mere variety would not 

 have the importance in a controversy of more specific differences, yet could it be established that 

 even so peculiarly distinct a variety as the Brahma had actually been evolved by the art of man- 

 not gradually or in course of time, but suddenly by a lucky cross — from pre-existing races of fowls, 

 and had been bred for more than twenty years since without further change or deterioration, the 

 fact would unquestionably be entitled to very great weight. It was perhaps natural, therefore, that 

 Mr. Darwin should have somewhat too eagerly seized upon it, and with a carelessness which is 

 most strongly to be condemned in a scientific man, but which our own knowledge of the facts of 

 poultry-breeding enables us to assert is paralleled by some other instances in the same work,* 

 stated, without any authority whatever but the bare ipse dixit of Mr. Tegetmeier, that " Dark 

 Brahmas, which are believed by some fanciers to constitute a distinct breed, were imdozibtcdly 

 formed in the United States within a recent period by a cross between Chittagongs and Cochins." 

 It was this rash endorsement by a really eminent man of an otherwise insignificant assertion, that 

 chiefly induced us a few years ago to go at some length into this subject; and which, though we 

 cannot repeat all the arguments at length, leads us to insert here a short recapitulation of the facts. 

 In a letter to Dr. Bennett, Mr. Virgil Cornish, of Connecticut, gave the following account of 

 these birds : — 



" In regard to the history of these fowls very little is known. A mechanic by the name of 

 Chamberlain, in this city, first brought them here. Mr. Chamberlain was acquainted with a sailor, 

 who informed him that there were three pairs of large imported fowls in New York ; and he dwelt 

 so much upon the enormous size of these fowls that Mr. Chamberlain furnished him with money, 

 and directed him to go to New York and purchase a pair of them for him, which he did. The 

 sailor reported that he found one pair of light grey ones, which he purchased ; the second pair were 

 dark-coloured, and the third pair were red. The man in New York, whose name I have not got, 

 gave no account of their origin, except that they had been brought there by some sailors ii\ the 

 India ships. The parties through whose hands the fowls came, so far as I have been able to trace 

 them, are all obscure men. I obtained my stock from the original pair brought here by Mr. 

 Chamberlain, and have never crossed them in the least. These fowls were named Chittagong by 



* " Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication." 



