Langshans. 
235 
(if we may so call them) were represented in our imported stock, so we look upon them as accidents 
and non-essentials.” 
At the Crystal Palace Show ol 1876 the Langshans (in separate classes) and Cochins were 
placed side by side, and Miss Croad herself states [Fowls, Aug. 9, 1888) that “many of the 
former bore so strong a resemblance to the latter, I was absolutely startled.” This was admittedly 
owing largely to the infusion of the new blood ; there was no disguise about that ; but there 
was no excuse for the wholesale charges of “cheating ” and “ fraud ” brought in consequence against 
many breeders. One specimen may be given of a great deal that went on. A pen of fowls 
won as Langshans at Weymouth in 1877, and were bought by Mr. H. Leys ; and a few 
months later were “disqualified” as Cochins — not merely “ passed,” but the card attached, and 
this reason given. This alone would not prove very much ; for judges are inconsistent enough 
at times. But after the Weymouth Show Miss Croad published a letter, complaining (on purely 
hearsay evidence) that her birds were “ robbed ” of the cup, and that the winners had “ yellow 
legs.” Mr. Leys, however, happened to be a believer in the Langshan, and bred Cochins also- 
and he stated that these birds were different altogether, and that moreover he had other 
birds hatched from “ Mr.” Croad’s own eggs, and that the two were alike , and all black-legged. 
Moreover, he had chickens from them, and they were utterly “unlike Cochins,” and had all 
the Langshan points, as he understood them. This went on everywhere, and the judges began 
to be abused whenever prizes went to any but certain parties, while no points were given them 
by which to distinguish ; until no judge would judge Langshans at all if he could help it, in sheer 
self-defence ; and then that, too, was put down to “ hostility.” Meantime skilled reporters of all 
schools described the birds in their reports as Cochins, or apparently Cochins ; and this brought 
upon ourselves threats couched in most insulting terms from Mr. Frank J. Nunn, one of the co- 
signatories to the first circular respecting a proposed Langshan Club, that the Club would “ at 
once action any editor" who should repeat what he was pleased to offensively but quite gratuitously 
interpret as “ false attacks upon the character” of any member. Even anonymous letters, under 
different signatures, but apparently in one handwriting, were about this time written on behalf of 
the Langshan to several individuals, attempting to injure the professional prospects of the 
writer of these lines.* The most wonderful thing about this wonderful bird, in fact, was the 
extraordinary effect it seemed to produce upon the tone and temper of all attracted within a 
certain magic circle. 
But we must now pass to the more recent history of these fowls. It will occur to many 
readers that a strain must have some exceedingly good qualities to ultimately live down such a 
suicidal policy as we have briefly delineated. Such the Langshan certainly has, and we 
now have to chronicle how the fowl gradually established its position. We believe that, after 
all, we ourselves were the destined instruments in working out this end. All the while the 
question of distinctness was being discussed, we were on the look-out to find something dis- 
tinctive if we could, and in the years 1877 anc ^ 1S78 we noticed pens of Langshans shown at 
Birmingham by Mr. J. Thomson of Aberdeen, which seemed to us really to exhibit a type widely 
different from that of the Cochin, and also — more significant to us — to show the same type in 
all the pens. These birds were nearly featherless, had every one a very full breast, with moderate 
or rather short legs, and a full “flowing” tail and “sweeping” outline, which were compared by us 
to the symmetry of the Dorking, or more often of the Hamburgh. We “ spotted ” this at once 
* It ought to be stated that there is no intention whatever to connect Miss Croad with these letters. That lady would be 
utterly incapable of this kind of warfare, and we have a pretty good idea as to the real authorship, but as there is no proof must 
say no more. It is, however, time that it should be known to what an extreme partisanship and bitter feeling were carried. 
