Poultry Types 35 



trade, and make especially plump capons. It 

 seems to be generally conceded that the Light 

 Brahma, for general purposes, is the better 

 fowl. 



Cochins. — It may be that you have seen, in sea- 

 port towns, yellow hens with long necks, who 

 stalked about as if they walked on stilts. These 

 were probably yellow Shanghais. The old garden 

 at the House of Seven Gables must have contained 

 some of these. Years of breeding have shortened 

 the necks and reduced the legs, and they are now 

 called by a new name. Buff Cochins. They now 

 have no more neck than seems necessary, and their 

 legs are just long enough to reach from the body to 

 the ground. 



The bodies of Cochins are blocky, and weigh 

 about the same as Dark Brahmas, covered with 

 soft fluffy plumage of a creamy golden hue. Their 

 plump form and yellow skin make them valuable 

 birds for market, and their gentle, almost lazy 

 disposition enables them to put on flesh easily. 

 They seem to have small ambition for supplying 

 the egg basket ; and it may generally be taken for 

 granted that a large, quiet bird will lay com- 

 paratively few eggs. 



