THE POULTRY BOOK. 
63 
‘‘ Among the Americans, Mr. Burnham says they are Shanghaes. Dr. Bennett 
contends they come from India. Why should they not? During the mania, 
many thousands of birds were imported from China. How was it that among 
them there were no Brahmas ; and why, then, should it be so strongly asserted they 
are only Cochins? It would seem that the hold of these latter birds on their 
admirers is so strong, that rather than admit a new actor on the scene, they vow he 
is the same in a new costume. Cochins will ever be memorable in the history of 
poultry as the birds that were the general favourites when a love for the feathered 
tribe sprang up. They will also bear the palm of having made larger prices, and 
maintained them longer than any other will probably do. Let their lovers and 
admirers he content with this, and with the good qualities which, by universal 
consent, are awarded to them. It is useless for them to ask more, as the public 
has already decided the value of them, and they have passed from ridiculous to 
rational prices. They have also suffered the fate of all favourites and fashions ; 
they have had their day, as ‘ stars.’ Let, then, the Brahmas have their turn, and 
reign, if they deserve it ; they will never attain the height of their predecessors, nor 
will any other : but do not seek to take from them ‘ their local habitation and their 
name.’ 
‘‘If they are Cochins, will the advocates of this opinion tell me if they ever 
bred their buffs, cinnamons, and grouse with pea-combs. I refer to this, first, 
because it is a disputed point among writers. One says the pea-comb is decidedly 
preferable ; the others say it should be single, upright, and well serrated. The 
pea-comb is a novelty with us ; it is unlike any other ; it is not in any part like the 
single one of the Cochin, the double one of the Hamburg, or the fiattened one of 
the Malay. It rises little from the head ; it is very thick at the base. It has the 
appearance of three combs pressed into one ; the middle and highest part has blunt 
serrations ; the sides, only half as high, have the same, looking like two small 
combs joined to a larger one. Now, in all our varied crosses we have never seen 
anything like this. If we put a Malay hen to a Cochin cock, as was done in the 
early days, we had no pea-comb. The effect was, the Malay comb became thinner 
and longer, and in some instances fell over the face, like that of a Spanish hen. 
In all my experience among thousands of Cochins, I never saw one with a double 
comb. I have seen crosses, with much of Cochin in them, with double combs, but 
of course they ceased to be types of the breed. 
“ I assert, then, the pea-combed Brahma cannot be a Cochin. If it be a cross, 
then I repeat what another writer on poultry said some time since : ‘ If brother 
Jonathan made these, I wish he would make us something more.* 
“ I would fain meet objections on their own grounds. One of them says all 
these birds sprang from one pair. There has, then, been no introduction of fresh 
blood ; and marvellous birds they are to go on with so little appearance of degene- 
racy ; and it speaks much for the purity of the breed, for were they made up of a 
cross, they would certainly thi’ow back. The attempt would hardly succeed of 
crossing between the Malay and Dorking, because it is known how the fifth claw 
