The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
234 
The ignorance of Cochins, and of the disease, here displayed, needs no remark. It is sufficient 
to observe that immediately after this was published, some very bad cases of scaly leg appeared 
in Langshans, and many have been noticed since. 
It was further affirmed that the Black Cochin itself was a mere “ made” bird, a .mongrel, and 
that the adult cocks “ as a result ” always moulted out more or less red and yellow in the feathers. 
To this it was replied that Black Cochins had indubitably been imported in the “ mania ” days. 
This was at once stigmatised * as an “ impudently false assertion,” and “unscrupulous editorial 
canard.” Ample evidence that it was so has since been given, and the fact of direct importation 
has since been expressly admitted, as of his own knowledge, by Mr. Harrison Weir, one of the 
most pronounced of recent Langshan advocates. And as to the colour, it was admitted in the very 
same work, that even the Langshan cockerel will “ now and then ” show red or golden feathers, in 
hackle or saddle, or both. 
The black leg was also insisted upon; and in the light of more recent developments, and of the 
peculiar purple skin between the scales, we now know that there was really more in this point than 
we then could see reason for accepting. But in a black leg, as such, there was no distinction ; and 
the disputants further asserted that a Black Cochin if “pure” must also have yellow “ face and 
ear-lobes.” It suffices to refer to Mr. Tegetmeier’s (the oldest) “ standard ” for Cochins, which 
states that the face and lobes were to be “brilliant red,” and the legs “ dark with yellow tinge ; ” yet 
statements on this head were also coolly stigmatised as “effrontery” (“The Langshan Controversy”). 
In the same work Miss Croad also professed to “dispose of” the black leg and white skin theory 
by referring to the Spanish fowl, whereas it is notorious that this fowl has a white skin. And in 
regard to Black Cochins and this colour, so long ago as May 23, 1850, a correspondent of the 
Cottage Gardener reported that all the chickens he had obtained from a sitting of Cochin eggs were 
two, both “ black with black legs .” 
The large tail was also mentioned, but is only comparative, and any Cochin or Brahma 
breeder knows to his cost how soon he could exhibit that if allowed ! The earlier Cochins had 
much larger tails, the Blacks the largest of all ; and the illustration presently referred to will show 
how little larger the tail then really was. It was also said that the comb was larger, but Meall’s 
edition of “ Mowbray on Poultry ” states, as the opinion of the writer, that in black Cochins “ the 
comb and wattles are larger than in any other sub-varieties.” Finally it was urged with considerable 
bitterness, that the Langshan gloss, or “sheen,” was sui generis , and when Mr. Ludlow made 
the remark that it was surpassed by the gloss of Black Hamburghs and Black Malays, Miss Croad 
replied f that “those who know anything of the breeds here mentioned will at once see how 
utterly false are Mr. Ludlow’s statements.” All experienced breeders know very well, that in any 
black fowl the amount of gloss really depends chiefly upon the time of year, the condition, and tight- 
ness of plumage ; and that variations in leg-feather, and length of leg, tail, &c., are simply matters 
of selection for a few generations ; but it was attempted to found distinctions upon these, whilst 
at the same time exhibiting specimens from time to time which failed to show even such dis- 
tinctions at all, but were sometimes of a quite rusty colour, and occasionally even hocked, 
according to the standard of those days. It was stated in “ The Langshan Fowl ” itself that 
“ thev are not all cast in the same mould ; some stand high, others are closer to the ground ; 
some have a tolerable amount of leg-feathering, others again have little, and in rare instances 
are nearly bare-legged. In some the combs droop, in others they are erect, and with the edges 
fine and evenly serrated. Some have black eyes, others hazel ; and all these various types 
* “ The Langshan Fowl,” p. 34. 
t “The Langshan Controversy,” p. 27. 
