Mr. D urnham' s A c count. 
247 
Such is one account of the origin of these fowls. In regard to the other, it will be best, for 
teasons that will be very obvious presently, to quote word for word from the first edition of “The 
Brahma Fowl,” published in 1870, our own original statement : — 
And first, to quote by far the most able exponent of the Cochin theory, Mr. Tegetmeier says,* “There is not a particle of 
evidence to show that they came from India. The banks of the Brahma-Pootra have long been in the possession of the British, 
and no such fowls were ever seen in the locality. In fact, Brahmas originated not in India, but in America ; and the two varieties 
of the breed now known as Dark and Light had unquestionably very distinct origins.” lie then goes on to say that the Light birds 
“ undoubtedly originated in, or were identical with, those grey fowls that from the very first came over from Shanghae with the buff 
and partridge birds now universally known as Cochins,” and, as undoubted evidence of this, quotes Mr. Burnham’s “amusing and 
unscrupulous work,” entitled “A History of the Hen Fever,” published at Boston in 1855. In this work Mr. Burnham, who, it 
will be remembered, sent over some of the earliest so-called Brahmas as a present to her Majesty, which arrived in January, 1853, 
affirms in effect that he originated them , relating how, out of a hundred Cochin fowls “ of all colours, grades, and proportions,” 
brought over by an enterprising captain, he selected “ a few grey birds, that were very large and consequently very fine.” These 
he bred with other grey stock he had, and “soon had a fine lot of birds.” We have thus two very definite statements by Mr. 
Burnham : first, that he was the founder or original breeder of Brahmas ; and secondly, that the Light variety were pure, uncrossed 
grey Cocjiins. 
On the other hand, of the Dark breed, which Mr. Tegetmeier has already affirmed to be of “very distinct origin” from the 
Light, he writes simply, “ Mr. Burnham states that they were grey Chillagongs crossed with Cochins. ‘ Of this,’ he says, ‘no one 
now entertains a doubt.’ ” As a single line, however, by no means does justice to the illustrious authority quoted as decisive, we 
transcribe from “The Hen Fever” the entire passage. 
The material portion of the passage from the work just referred to is as follows : — 
When, in 1850 and ’51, the “ Bother ems" \ began to be brought into notice, I saw at once that, although this was 
bubble number two, it ought to have been number one decidedly. 
Never was a grosser hum perpetrated than this was, from beginning to end, even in the notorious hum of the hen-trade. 
There was absolutely nothing whatever in it, about it, or connected with it, that possessed the first shade of substance to 
recommend it, saving its name. And even this could not have saved it, but from the fact that nobody (not even the originator 
of the unpronounceable cognomen himself) was ever able to write or spell it twice in the same manner. 
The variety of fowl itself was the Grey Chittagong , to which allusion has already been made, and the first samples of 
which I obtained from “Asa Rugg” (Dr. Kerr), of Philadelphia, in 1850. Of this no one now entertains a doubt. They 
were the identical fowl all over — size, plumage, and characteristics. 
But my friend the Doctor wanted to put forth something that would take better than his “Plymouth Rocks,” and so 
he consulted me as to a name for a brace of grey fowls I saw in his yard. I always objected to the multiplying of titles ; 
but he insisted, and finally entered them at our Fitchburg Depot Show as “ Burrampooiers,” all the way from India. 
These three fowls were bred from Asa Rugg’s Grey Chittagong cock, with a yellow Shanghae hen, in Plymouth, Mass. 
They were an evident cross, all three of them having a top knot l But n' importe. They were then “ Burrampooters.” 
Subsequently these fowls came to be called “ Burampootras,” “ Barram Putras,” “ Bramapooters,” “Brahmas,” 
“Brama Puters,” “ Brama Poutras,” and at last “Brahma Pootras.” In the meantime they were advertised to be exhibited 
at various fairs in different parts of the country under the above changes of title, varied in certain instances as follows : 
“Burma Porters,” “Bahama Paduas,” “Bohemian Pudras,” “Bahama Pudras;” and for these three last named, prizes were 
actually offered at a Maryland fair in 1851 ! — pp. 90, 91, 92. 
After quoting the accounts of Mr. Cornish, and giving this summary of Mr. Burnham’s 
contra claim to have originated the Brahma, reasons were given in “ The Brahma Fowl ” and 
former editions of this work, for attaching no credence whatever to Mr. Burnham’s claims. 
Very little actual material was then available for forming a judgment upon ; we rather felt , 
than could give any very definite reason for the belief, that we were dealing with 
untruthful statements, and we had no means of knowing that any of the parties to the old 
dispute of 1850-55 were still alive. Mr. Burnham, however, made the fact that he was in 
existence very evident, by a series of letters published almost everywhere in 1874, and the 
* “The Poultry Book,” p. 55 - 
f A page or two after, the word “ Bother cm Foot rums" is used. This is only mentioned to show that the word here is 
meant as a burlesque on the name of Brahma. 
