34 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



highly exaggerated, that they must lead to disappoint- 

 ment, and cause the breed to be as much undeservedly 

 underrated, as it had been before foolishly extolled. 

 The size and weight ascribed to them, too, are enor- 

 mous. To give an idea of their height and magnitude, 

 they have been styled the " ostrich fowl." This is an 

 old, but* very bad system of giving names, to affix that 

 of some other animal, indicating certain supposed 

 qualities ; for such appellations are apt to induoe 

 notions of relationship, or hybridity, which are not easily 

 removed from the minds of the many. 



The Cochin- China cock has a large, upright, single, 

 deeply-indented comb, very much resembling that of 

 the black Spanish, and when in high condition of quite 

 as brilliant a scarlet ; like him, also, he has a very 

 large, white ear lobe on each cheek. The wattles are 

 large, wide, and pendant. The legs are of a pale-flesh 

 color. The feathers on the breast and sides are of a 

 bright chestnut-brown, large and well defined, giving 

 a scaly or imbricated appearance to those parts. In 

 some birds, there is a horse-shoe marking on the breast, 

 caused by a darker shade, and which increases, and 

 perhaps comes, with age. The hackle of the neck is 

 of a light yellowish-brown ; the lower feathers being 

 tipped with dark- brown, so as to give a spotted appear- 

 ance to the neck. The tail feathers are black, and 

 darkly iridescent ; back, scarlet-orange ; back hackle, 

 yellow-orange. It is, in short, altogether a flame- 

 colored bird. Both sexes are lower in the leg than 

 either the black Spanish or the Malay, and they are 

 remarkably full feathered. • 



It has incorrectly been asserted, that " the disposition 

 of the feathers on the back of the cock's neck is reversed, 

 these being turned upwards ; the wing is jointed, so 

 that the posterior half can, at pleasure, be doubled up, 

 and brought forward between the anterior half and the 

 body ;" the only foundation for which absurdity, is, 

 that in some of the half-grown cockerels, certain 

 feathers, the wing coverts, curl forwards ; but the 



