THE HBN FEVER. 173 



/ had seen these birds, ia the same way, before they did. 

 And a London dealer wrote me that he could send me a lot 

 of Egleton's "famous" stock, "which took the three first 

 premiums at a metropolitan show, and two descendants of 

 which, at the close of the late exhibition, were sold at auc- 

 tion for forty-eight guineas ($262)." 



I immediately sent out for a few of these monsters. 

 They were described to me as being of enormous size, and 

 feathered upon the legs ; and I was now somewhat sur- 

 prised to note that several of the English societies decided 

 that the true " Cochin-China " fowl (as they term this 

 variety) come only with feathered legs. The very stock 

 above alluded to, however, came direct from the city of 

 Shanghae ; and duplicate birds of the same blood were de- 

 lineated in the London Illustrated News. The metropol- 

 itan associations required that all Cochin-China fowls 

 put in competition for premiums must be feathered-legged. 

 This was a new decision, as it is well known that every 

 importation of domestic fowl yet brought out from China 

 direct come more or less ofeaw-legged ; and that fully one 

 half of their progeny are so, with the most careful breed- 

 ing, both in England and in this country. . This was imma- 

 terial, however; and I repeated the story to my corres- 

 pondents in good faith, and sent them copies of the por- 

 traits of these new, "extraordinary," "splendid" and 

 "astonishing" hens, precisely as their history and pictures 

 15* 



