IANQSIWS 



THE BLACK LANGSHAN. 



A Product of the Langshan Hills of China— Its Admission to the American Standard and Subsequent 



Development — Pen Pictures of Ideal Male and Female— The Defects Found and Cuts 



Scored by the Judge— A Tried and Proven System of 



Mating for Best Results. 



By I. K. Felch. 



THE first importation of them to America was made 

 in 1876, by E. A. Samuels, the ornithologist of Wal- 

 tham, Mass., from the Langshan Hills of China. 

 About four years before this (February, 1872) they 

 were imported by Major Croad of Sussex, England, from the 

 same quarter. Those of us Who were active in poultry cul- 

 ture at that time remember the bitter antagonism exhibited 

 toward them by those breeders then trying to make the Black 

 Cochin popular; they terming these new importations as 

 crude and indifferently-bred Cochins, but they reckoned 

 badly, for they lived to see these black additions to our list 

 prove beyond dispute a difference in type and exhibit more 

 decided and brilliant color, which secured for them the ap- 

 pellation of "The black diamonds" in poultry culture. The 

 clandestine use of them as crosses with the Cochins, both 

 in England and America, in the hope of improving the color 

 of their plumage, brought to the breeder thus working, the 

 chagrin of seeing the Cochin character and color of shanks 

 and feet absorbed by the Langshan instead, and in the end 

 forcing him to acknowledge their superior strength of blood 

 and breeding; the Langshan establishing itself as a thor- 

 oughbred of decided type and color and maintaining its de- 

 cided merit as producers of eggs, taking rank as the best 

 layers among the Asiatics. 



They have many admirers and those not prejudiced 

 against the color of the skin of poultry (it being white 

 skinned), find no fault with its merit as a meat supply. 



The Langshan Hills of northern China is the original 

 home of this breed, as it was from there that the first speci- 

 mens, sent both to America and England, were imported. 

 It matters not how fully one may write of its advent, its 

 history in America is what interests the readers of to-day. 

 During the seven years from its advent to 1883, when at 

 Worcester it secured admission to the American Standard, 

 its path was a thorny one for any breed — no breed probably 

 ever had such opposition and probably none ever had a 

 greater triumph in its acceptance. A petition of nearly a 

 thousand names accomplished its admission. 



It is now nineteen years since they were acknowledged 

 as thoroughbreds by the American breeders and accepted by 

 the A. P. A. at Worcester, Massachusetts. 



It was my privilege to write out a standard for them as 

 a disinterested party. Those being on exhibition (a full row 



across the hall) comprised birds of all ages, imported and 

 American bred; no finer lot has ever graced an exhibition 

 since. After having made a standard for them, which was 

 accepted at that meeting, it was my lot to repair to the hall , 

 to judge and score the exhibits; thus was I the first judge 

 to score and award the prizes to the first exhibit of Lang- 

 shans under A. P. A. law. At that time arbitrary demands 

 for disqualifications were necessary to secure their admis- 

 sion, in order to make them as distinct from the Black 

 Cochin as possible. For all that, t>y the simple change of 

 the disqualifying clauses of that date for those of to-day, 

 we claim that the weights and other demands of their stan- 

 dard, if they had been allowed to stand intact, and the 

 breeder forced to live up to and breed to them, would have 

 given us to-day in America a larger and handsomer breed 

 than we now have. 



The color appearing in neck, saddle, tail coverts and 

 sickles, wing coverts and lower web of secondaries is a 

 changeable one off dark green to black. Looking at the 

 plumage at right angles it is a coal black, while at an angle 

 of forty-five degrees it is a rich, sheeny green — might be 

 said to be a calendered green — over black. The breasts, 

 thighs, primaries, fluff and tail proper are a solid black in 

 first-class specimens. In these sections we have little if any 

 of the green sheen spoken of above, for the reason that they 

 are protected from the direct rays of the sun, being almost 

 constantly in the shadow of the body. A dark slate color 

 for under fluff will be found in the best colored specimens, 

 this with black under color being the only ones that should 

 be passed uncut by the judge in adjudicating for prices. 



I have no desire to alter or amend that which I sug- 

 gested to the Langshan Club in 1891, which is herewith sub- 

 mitted, neither have I any desire to change my criticisms of 

 the illustrations then in vogue and of the character of foot 

 plumage. Excessive shank and foot plumage changes the 

 appearance and pure Langshan shape into a similarity to 

 Cochin shape. This, as is well known, disgusts every first- 

 class breeder of Langshans. But to return to color in this 

 estimable breed. How many do we see of a rusty shade of 

 black, with no lustre or green sheen, and is it not the truth 

 that these birds are most leniently considered by the judges. 

 There is another defect that is objectionable. Some speci- 

 mens are actually barred with bronze bars, or a color akin 



