THE ASIATICS. 



A Short History of the Introduction of Cochins, Brahmas, and Langshans— Their Origin is Veiled in 



Mystery, But From Data Gathered by Numerous Early Fanciers the Period 



of Their First Appearance is Fixed. 



By A. F. Hunter, Associate Editor Reliable Poultry Journal. 



m 



R. DARWIN tells us that "sufficient materials do 

 not exist for tracing the history of the separate 

 breeds" of fowls,. and it is equally true' that suffi- 

 cient materials do not exist for tracing the growth 

 <or evolution) of the domestic fowls of to-day as a whole, 

 but from what materials we haye and by what we can sur- 

 mise we can piece together a probable history. 



The domesticated fowl, according to Mr. Darwin, is said 

 to have been introduced from the west into China about 

 1400 B. C, and we see in the descendants of those fowls a 

 development in a decidedly different direction from that 

 taken by the domesticated fowls in Europe and North 

 Africa. Instead of the small, non-sitting, intensely nervous 

 and active "Mediterranean," we find the large, clumsy, 

 placid-dispositioned and extremely broody "Asiatics." 



If we suppose that quantity and quality of meat were 

 preferred to a great egg product we would expect just such 

 a development of the meat producing qualities as those 

 Asiatic fowls possess. Some of us can remember the great 

 Yellow Shanghais, Gray Chittagongs and Malays of fifty or 

 sixty years ago; so tall that, while standing on the floor 

 beside it, they could eat corn off the top of a barrel that 

 was standing on end; cock birds of the descendants of those 

 varieties are said to have reached seventeen or eighteen 

 pounds iin weight. 



Much ink has been shed over the introduction of what 

 ■we know as the Asiatic varieties of fowls. Wright's "New 

 Book of Poultry," speaking of Cochins, says: 



"Books of much pretension have traced the origin of 

 this breed to some fowls imported in 1843, which afterwards 

 became the property of Queen Victoria under the name of 

 Cochin China fowls. As regards the fowls themselves this 

 is a total mistake. A drawing of those birds was given in 

 the Illustrated London News of that date (see illustration), 

 from which and the description it is manifest that they had 

 absolutely no point3 of the Cochin at all, save perhaps yel- 

 low legs and large size. The shanks were long and bare, 

 the heads carried back instead of forward, the tail large 

 and carried high, the back long and sloping to the tail, the 

 •eyes black, the plumage close and hard. Of what we may 

 ■call Malay blood they probably had a great deal, of Cochin 

 blood none, or but some trace in a cross. But one thing 

 about them there was; these fowls were not only big, but 

 they probably really did come from Cochin China, and from 

 them and that fact came undoubtedly the name, which 

 -will now belong, while poultry breeding lasts, to another 

 fowl that has no right to it at all. 



"The real stock first reached this country in 1S47, Mr. 

 Moody in Hampshire and Mr. Alfred Sturgeon of Gray's Essex 

 *oth receiving stock in that year. Mr. Moody's, so far as we 

 •can learn, were inferior in character and leg-feather to Mr. 

 Sturgeon's but were very large and of the same broad type; 



and all alike came from the port of Shanghai or its neigh- 

 borhood. 



"The birds were undoubtedly Shanghais and had never 

 been near Cochin China, and for years attempts were made 

 to put this matter straight. The first Poultry Book of 

 Wingfield and Johnson (1853) wrote of them as Shanghais, 

 and all American writers strove for the same name years 

 after the attempt had been abandoned in England; but it 

 was no use. * * * The public had got to know the new, 

 big fowls as Cochins, and would use no other word, and so 

 the name stuck, in the teeth of the facts, and holds the field 

 to this day." 



Mr. Sturgeon's stock, with subsequent importations 

 from Shanghai has been the main source from which Coch- 

 ins were bred in this country; America has had many inde- 

 pendent importations. Mr. Punchard's stock was mainly 

 from Mr. Sturgeon, the latter keeping from choice the lem- 

 ons and buffs, while Mr. Punchard had the dark birds which 

 originated the Partridges." 



The Brahmas were undoubtedly originated in America 

 by selection and careful breeding of what was known as 

 the Gray Chittagongs. Mr. Wright quotes a letter of a 

 Mr. Virgil Cornish, of Connecticut, dated March 2, 1852, as 

 follows : 



"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 ac 

 quainted with a sailor, who informed him 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 colored, 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 in the Indian 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 Mr. Chamberlain, on account of their 

 resemblance, in some degree, to the fowls then in the coun- 

 try called by that name; but it is certain that they never 

 bred until they reached this town." 



One strain of these fowls, according to Mr. Wright was 

 first called "Burram pooters," evidently with the intention 

 of having it believed they were^ of a different race from the 

 Chittagongs and ShanghaK^the name being subsequently 

 dropped and replaced by "Brahnia-Pootre," and eventually 

 simplified into Brahmas, by whicn name they were intro- 



