2 54 
The 1 1 lustrated Book of Poultry. 
Finally, we must consider some objections made by Burnham to the Cornish- Bennett 
narrative, which really have more or less force. We have hitherto, on Mr. Crook’s authority, stated 
that the first exhibition of Brahmas took place “ at the Fitchburg Depot Show” in 1850. Mr. Crook 
was not to blame for this, for at the date he gave us this information as the result of his inquiries 
in America, scarcely any documentary evidence had turned up, as it has since done. Mr. Burnham, 
as we have already seen, states that these fowls were bred from his “ grey Chittagong cock with a 
buff Shanghai hen.” And this is true. But what he omits to add, is that Dr. Bennett ahvays 
admitted tins. We quote from a letter he published so far back as 1853 : — 
The Chittagong fowl is frequently crested, the Brahma Pootra never. It is true that a cross-breed of fowls derived from the 
great Ostrich and grey Chittagong fowls, and to which I gave the name of Brahma Pootra from their resemblance to that breed, 
are crested occasionally, and frequently of a buff colour ; but no one ever pretended that these were not a cross, or that they were 
the pure Brahma Pootras, though a very excellent variety of fowls. Of this cross-breed, the committee of the Poultry and Bird 
Exhibition, at the Fitchburg Depot, on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of October, 1850, in their “Report,” say, page 2, “The 
Burr ampoot-crs shown by Dr. Bennett were among the largest and most showy domestic birds exhibited. They resemble the 
Chittagongs strongly ; are grey in plumage, and come from stock imported directly from the valley of the Bu/rampooter (or 
Brahmapootra), India. It is stated that this species attain to the enormous weight of twenty-three to twenty-five pounds per pair, 
at maturity. They clearly originate in a cross of the Chittagong and * Ostrich ’ fowl of the East.” 
There can be no doubt that the Doctor wanted to make or get a new variety to sell , and that 
he was in a way as much given to this kind of business as Burnham himself. But it is also 
clear from Mr. Cornish’s letter above that there were Brahmas at this same show, shown by Hatch ; 
and Dr. Bennett, by his own statements, finding here what he wanted — a new breed with real marks 
ol purity — abandoned his cross, transferred the name to Mr. Hatch’s fowls, and henceforth bred 
them. Allowing for the prejudice and rivalry we have seen, this is corroborated by the following 
from Burnham himself, and makes the whole matter on this point perfectly clear : — 
At the Fitchburg Depot Show in 1850, my original “Grey Chittagongs ” (already described) were in the possession of G. W. 
George, Esq., of Haverhill, to whom they had been sold by the party to whom I had previously sold them. Nobody thought well 
of them; but they took a first prize there, and the “Chittagongs” (so entered at the same time) of Mr. Hatch, of Connecticut, 
also took a prize. My friend the Doctor then insisted that these were also “ Burrampooters ; ” but, as nobody but himself could 
pronounce this jaw-cracking name, it was taken little notice of at that time. 
Mr. Hatch had a large quantity of the Greys at this show, which sold readily at $12 to $20 the pair; and immediately 
after this exhibition the demand for “Grey Chittagongs” was very active. I watched the current of the stream, and I beheld with 
earnest sympathy the now alarming symptoms of the fever. “ The people ” had suffered a relapse in the disease, and the ravages 
now promised to become frightful— for a time ! 
An ambitious sea-captain arrived at New York from Shanghae, bringing with him about a hundred China fowls, of all colours, 
grades, and proportions. Out of this lot I selected a few grey birds, that were very large, and (consequently) “very fine,” of 
course. I bred these, with other grey stock I had, at once, and soon had a fine lot of birds to dispose of — to which I gave what I 
have always deemed their only true and appropriate title (as they came from Shanghae) — to wit, Grey Shanghaes. — Hen Fever, p. 99. 
The whole matter so far is now transparent as noon-day. Mr. Burnham has affirmed over and 
over again since 1874, that all the Brahmas, be they Shanghai or Chittagong, came from his stock. 
It is clear, on the contrary, that he first saw the Hatch stock , then known as Chittagongs; and 
that his “Grey Shanghaes” were, as we had always considered and said, bred first and sold after- 
wards in imitation of the Chamberlain strain. The remarkable statement he himself makes, that 
while “no one thought well of” his own “ original ” Grey Chittagongs, Mr. Hatch’s “sold readily,” 
and that the demand for them “ became very active,” throws light on the whole, and settles this 
point clearly. 
Mr. Burnham next refers — as he was perfectly right in doing — to an inconsistency which 
appears between Mr. Cornish's second letter on page 246, in which he states that the first birds were 
brought into Connecticut in 1846, and another statement in the first edition of “The Brahma 
Fowl” to the effect that “a portion of Mr. Cornish’s letter not quoted in ‘The Poultry Yard’ 
states that Chamberlain brought his fowls into the State in the early part of 1849.” This was fair 
criticism ; but what was not fair was for him to write as follows : — 
Mr. Chamberlain brought his first pair of these grey fowls The owner of the fowls was named Nelson H. Chamber - 
into Connecticut in the early part of the year 1849. This is lin. I bought his first brood, hatched in 1847. The ship 
certain. — ( Virgil Cornish's original account, given March 2 nd, arrived at New York with them in September, 1846 .—{Virgil 
l&c 2 .) Cornish's second account , written “ to order A Nov. 9, 1869.) 
