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CHAPTER XX. 
BRAHMAS. 
The controversy which was carried on so long and so keenly regarding the original source of the 
Brahma fowl is chiefly interesting in so far as it bears upon the more general question of the origin 
of varieties or species ; which latter has, owing to the more recently developed views of Mr. Darwin 
and his disciples, become the important controversy amongst scientific men of the present day. 
To support the doctrine of the development or evolution of distinct varieties or species from pre- 
existing species, it is of much importance to collect any evidence which may be obtainable tending 
to authenticate actual examples of this process; and though the creation of a mere variety would not 
have the importance in a controversy of more specific differences, yet could it be established that 
even a variety so peculiarly distinct as the Brahma had actually been evolved by the art of man — 
not gradually or in course of time, but suddenly by a lucky cross — from pre-existing races of fowls, 
and had been bred for more than twenty years since without further change or deterioration, the 
fact would unquestionably be one of some weight. It was perhaps natural, therefore, that 
Mr. Darwin should have somewhat too eagerly seized upon it, and with a carelessness which should 
have been avoided by a scientific man, but which our knowledge of the facts of poultry-breeding 
enables us to assert is paralleled by other instances in the same work,* stated, without any 
authority whatever but the ipse dixit of Mr. Tegetmeier, that “ Dark Brahmas, which are believed 
by some fanciers to constitute a distinct breed, were undoubtedly formed in the United States 
within a recent period by a cross between Chittagongs and Cochins.” It is this rash acceptance 
by a really eminent man of an utterly unsupported assertion, that chiefly induces us to go at 
some length into the subject, and to insert here a short recapitulation of the facts. It is the more 
desirable to do this, because a direct challenge by Mr. Burnham of our former statements in this 
work, and the discussion which followed, while it has somewhat modified our earlier views, will 
enable us now to place the whole matter beyond any doubt. 
In a letter to Dr. Bennett, Mr. Virgil Cornish, of Connecticut, gave the following account of 
these birds : — 
In regard to the history of these fowls very little is known. A mechanic by the name of Chamberlain, in this city, 
first brought them here. Mr. Chamberlain was acquainted with a sailor, who informed him that there were three pairs of 
large imported fowls in New York ; and he dwelt so much upon the enormous size of these fowls that Mr. Chamberlain 
furnished him with money, and directed him to go to New York and purchase a pair of them for him, which he did. The 
sailor reported that he found one pair of light grey ones, which he purchased ; the second pair were dark-coloured, and the 
third pair were fed. The man in New York, whose name I have not got, gave no account of their origin, except that they 
had been brought there by some sailors in the India ships. The parties through whose hands the fowls came, so far as I 
have been able to trace them, are all obscure men. I obtained my stock from the original pair brought here by Mr. 
Chamberlain, and have never crossed them in the least. These fowls were named Chittagong by Mr. Chamberlain, on 
account of their resemblance, in some degree , to the fowls then in the country called by that name ; but it is certain that 
they never bred until they reached this town. 
* “ Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication.' 
