Evolution of English Types of Langshans, Orpingtons 



and Cochins 



An Interesting and Valuable Stndy of the Relative Types of Three Allied Breeds with Sketches 

 Sho-wing Changes in Shape During the Past Thirty-Five Years 



J. W. Ludlow, England 



MTy-iaiea-'in araVi-ng attention to these three varieties 

 of poultry is to show the alliance, progress and 

 gradual development which has taken place with- 

 in the past thirty-five years. 



As I am about to write from memory, I may not be 

 strictly accurate in dates. I suppose it is about thirty- 

 five or forty years since the introduction of the first , 

 Langshans into this country. Anyhow, about that 

 jperiod Black Cochins (never a large number, owing 

 to the stupid insistence of yellow legs and beak) had 

 Tun down to almost total extinction. There were but 

 •iew fanciers who were willing to make an effort to 

 ■breed up to an ideal so exacting as a big, bulky, squat, 

 •heavily feathered Black Cochin with yellow legs and 

 'beak. The object was too much of an unreality, yield- 

 ing so small a percentage of progeny anywhere approach- 

 sing the desired yellow leg and beak points, together 

 'with the massive fluffy proportions, such as attained, 

 and more easily, in the more naturally produced Buffs. 



Thus Black Cochins were at that period a compara- 

 tively used-up, puny, neglected sort, and remained so 

 until the advent of Langshans, at which time a ray 

 of hope shone upon the few scattered remnants. The 

 idea of a "cross" between our British Black Chinee 

 and his newly-imported brother (the Croad Langshan) 

 soon took root, and it was not long ere the influence 

 of this harmonious union became apparent not by yellow 

 leg and beak. Oh, no! That color anomaly had to be 

 abandoned, and rightly so, for it had already been a too 

 serious impediment in the way of Black Cochin breeding 

 ito be longer insisted upon as a standard feature. 



Pifty years ago the few Black Cochins we had were 

 intTiemain narrow, flat-sided, half-breeds in appearance, not 

 good enough to class with the Buffs nor numerous enough 

 to be called a strain. They were chiefly "sports," in- 

 evitable variations from the early day, less purified, but 

 pedigreed, mixed-color stocks — the days when Buffs were 

 anything from cinnamon to yellow, with black tails, 

 .flights, foot-feather, and black-striped hackle. From such 

 .as these, blacks came occasionally, whether wanted or not, 

 as did also whites, partridge and cuckoos. "Buffs," being 

 the grand centerpiece of attraction, were "all the go." Buff, 

 Ibufif, buff was the craze then with Cochins, as it is now 

 ■with Buff Orpingtons. The same questions were asked 

 •then as now as to "exact shade of color" preferred. 



It has been my lot and my pleasure to watch these 

 changes from the very earliest period to the Cochin 

 era, even to the fulfillment of one's hopes and expecta- 

 tions, as exemplified in the ideal specimens of the Buffs of 

 today, in which the names of Tomlinson, Proctor, Felton, 

 Bailey, Wade, Bagshaw, and Riddell will long remain 

 most prominent, as will also the names of Chase and 

 .Darby for Whites, Harriss, Southon, and Felton for 

 'Partridge, and Colonel Williamson and the Rev. Dodd for 

 iBIacks, the variety to which my notes especially apply. 



So great is the change which has taken place in Buff 

 ■Cochins in fifty years that I feel almost tempted to depict 

 and describe the wonderful alteration in them also, but 



my theme here is Blacks only and their alliance with 

 Croad Langshans, and, as a sequence, at least a link also 

 with the Black Orpington. 



What I particularly want to show is that the best 

 Black Cochins of today are in perfect line in point 

 of size, fluffy massiveness, heavy foot-feathering and 

 general Cochin rotundity and other all-round character- 

 istics, well up in all good points, level, or nearly so, 

 with their brethren, the magnificent Buffs of today. Such 

 a raising of the standard Black has only been possible by 

 reason of the skillful infusion of the thickest set, shortest 

 legged Langshans of thirty-five years ago. Today the ex- 

 traordinary massive features of George Proctor's Buffs 

 and Colonel Williamson's Blacks each can toe the line of 

 equality, each models of excellence, neither having any 

 point needing improvement. 



It is not pleasant, perhaps, to be told that one's 

 stock is the result of a "cross." It is preferable to regard 

 them as pure and undefiled, clear of the mongrelizing ele- 

 ment, but in this case there is none of the "mongrel" in 

 the alliance — none whatever. It has been simply the 

 bringing together of long-parted strains of the same tribe, 

 and I conceive there is far more credit due in working a 

 strain up to perfection in accord with the generally ac- 

 cepted model than working at a ready-made type until 

 they degenerate in constitution and points of merit. If in 

 the exposition of these alliances I offend any Langshan, 

 Orpington, or Black Cochin breeders, I am sorry, but I 

 am writing from an experience extending over sixty 

 years' watchful, practical experience. I have seen many 

 ideas put into practice, and have lived long enough to have 

 seen most of them worked out to perfection. 



If you look at the illustration on the opposite page, 

 take the top row, note the (No. 1) Croad Langshan to 

 the left, and then see present-day British 1910 type to 

 the extreme right (No. 6). The difference is great, but the 

 object is clearly achieved. 



Look again at. the middle row, "Orpingtons" (7 to 

 12). Many fanciers objected to the scanty foot-feather- 

 ing of the Langshans. It was said to be neither one 

 thing nor the other. So clean-legged strains were soon 

 started, leading up from leggy No. 7, on, the left, and fin- 

 ishing off with the up-to-date short-legged ideal as de- 

 picted on center line to the right (No. 12). 



Then take the bottom row, Black Cochins. The 

 meagre-looking No. 13 to the left represents one of 

 the best of a poor lot in 187S, and those not reliable 

 for reproduction. Compare him with the modern type 

 of bird on the right (18), and you will realize there has 

 been something more than theory in the scheme. 



To the late William Cook is rightly ascribed the 

 credit of producing and naming the Black Orpington. 

 Certainly he brought them out, named them, and kept 

 them up in prominejice until their merits and value 

 were fully assured. Then they went up by leaps and 

 bounds m popularity. The contest for supremacy was 

 strong between such staunch breeders as the ever genial 

 Cook himself, Johnstone, Peele, Bell, Partington, Cross 



