56 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
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, 
** In 1851 and ’52 I had a most excellent run of luck with these birds. I dis- 
tributed them all over the country, and obtained very fair prices for them ; and, 
finally, the idea occurred to me that a present of a few of the choicest of these 
birds to the Queen of England wouldn’t prove a very bad advertisement for me in 
this line. I had already reaped the full benefit accruing from this sort of ‘ disin- 
terested generosity ’ on my part towards certain American notables, and I put 
my newly-conceived plan into execution forthwith. 
“ I then had on hand a fine lot of fowls, bred from my imported stock, which 
had been so much admired, and I selected from my best ‘ Grey Shanghae * 
chickens nine beautiful birds. They were placed in a very handsome black 
walnut-framed cage, and after having been duly lauded by several first-rate notices 
in the Boston and New York papers, they were duly shipped across the big pond, 
addressed in purple and gold as follows : 
TO H. M. G. MAJESTY, VICTORIA, 
QUEEN OP GREAT BRITAIN. 
To he Delivered at Zoological GardenSf 
LONDON, ENG. 
From Geo. P. Burnham, Boston, Mass. U. S. A. 
The fowls left me in December, 1852. The Illustrated London News of 
January 22nd, 1853, contained the following article in reference to this consign- 
ment : — 
‘ By the last steamer from the United States, a cage of very choice domestic 
fowls was brought to her Majesty Queen Victoria, a present from George P. Burn- 
ham, Esq., of Boston, Mass. The consignment embraced nine beautiful birds — 
two males and seven pullets, bred from stock imported by Mr. Burnham direct 
from China. The fowls are seven and eight months old, but are of mammoth 
proportions and exquisite plumage^ — light silvery-grey bodies, approaching white, 
delicately traced and pencilled with black upon the neck-hackles and tips of the 
wings and tails. The parent stock of these extraordinary fowls weigh at maturity 
upwards of twenty-three pounds per pair ; while their form, notwithstanding this 
great weight, is unexceptionable. They possess all the rotundity and beauty of 
the Dorking fowl ; and, at the same age, nearly double the weight of the latter. 
They are denominated Grey Shanghaes (in contradistinction to the Red or Yellow 
Shanghaes), and are considered in America the finest of all the great Chinese 
varieties. That they are a distinct race, is evident from the accuracy with which 
they breed, and the very close similarity that is shown amongst them ; the whole 
of these birds being almost precisely alike, in form, plumage and general charac- 
teristics. They are said to be the most prolific of all the Chinese fowls. At 
the time of their shipment these birds weighed about twenty pounds the pair.’ 
“ This was a very good beginning. A few weeks afterwards, the Illustrated 
