42 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
April 20. 
The darker, or “ grouse ” birds, are subject to the same 
criticism ; a matter of regret, since none of their family are 
better adapted than these and the last-mentioned to the 
economical purposes from which, after all, the real value of 
their race must be derived. 
The white Shanghaes of 1850 can hardly be regarded 
as evidencing any onward progress; general opinion,perhaps, 
would draw the contrary conclusion. Harmony of colour, 
that has rejected the dark-hackled butf and silver-cinnamon 
birds, repudiates, with equal justice, the same antagonistic 
effect in a white bird with green or rather olive-stained 
legs. A similar rule is at once submitted to in the case 
of white Bantams and white Dorkings, but in white 
Shanghaes there seem to be many exhibitors hard to persuade 
of this incongruity, if we may judge from the number of 
specimens thus disfigured that are so constantly brought 
before us. Even for the kitchen the disadvantage is great, 
still more so in the poultry-yard, where we now know that 
our best birds for the table may also pass the strictest 
ordeal in respect of feather. This blemish, we are inclined 
to think, increases with age; at any rate, from the greater 
coarseness of the scales it then becomes more apparent. 
So numerous, indeed, have been the pens thus defective in 
one or more of their occupants, that the deliberations of the 
judges in this class have seldom been of long continuance. 
Neither in respect of “feather,"' “form,” “condition,” or 
“size,” can we place the white Shanghaes in an higher j 
position than they had previously reached. 
Whether u while" or “black Shanghaes" are really and ! 
truly distinct and permanent varieties, in the literal sense of j 
I that word, is hardly a matter for present enquiry; but in 
I respect of the black, more especially, we cannot but observe 
| an absence of at least one test of individuality, viz., that of 
“ like producing Wee." We should not, indeed, despair of 
eliciting the fact, that from black parents nearly every 
shade and combination of colour hitherto noticed in a 
Shangliae fowl has seen the light. But this very designation 
is rarely correct, and, so far as the cocks are concerned, 
“black-breasted red Shanghaes" would be. the more correct 
term; for certainly, one-half the male birds would be far 
more fitly described as such. With the hens there is 
evidently loss difficulty in the retaining the uniform black 
that a bird thus distinctively named from colour should 
invariably possess. This circumstance, like the green legs 
in the birds last spoken of, has usually expedited the 
judges in their progress round the exhibition-room ; any 
departure from the normal colour justly disqualifying. 
Cuckoo Shanghaes, 'J’ufted Shanghaes, Emu or Silk 
Shanghaes, and possibly other accidental off-shoots from the ! 
same family tree, have also invited attention. But even if j 
there had here been no addition to, or deviation from, the ] 
| special characteristics of this breed, there was certainly an 
j absence of any attraction, in respect of plumage, that could 
! advance their claim to notice. Diligently as the Shangliae 
fowl has been recently studied, and positive as are the , 
conclusions that are sometimes over-hastily drawn from our 
j comparative short experience, it will be well for us to j 
| remember the many thousand years that may have passed 
by this bird in a state of domestication, and consequently, I 
J the many changes, even in material points, to which it may 
| have been subjected. 
Our conclusions, were such a course adopted, might not, 
1 indeed, be so satisfactory to ourselves on the subject of the 
specific differences of the several sub-varieties of this bird, but 
they would be less liable to the contradiction of every-day 
experience, and in closer analogy with the history of the i 
other fowls whose existence has been coeval with that of 
our forefathers, and of which, it must be owned, we still know, 1 
comparatively, so little. 
Ordinary buff birds have produced the silk or “ Emu ” 
Shangliae; the multiplicity of colours resulting from the i 
j union of the black and white have been already alluded to ; J 
I white, again, have sprung from buff, and the lightest shades j 
j of the latter from the darkest partridge. Greys are not 
wanting to complete our list of variations; but of these we 
shall have more to say in another place. All we now urge 
is the present absence of sufficient evidence of permanency 
of variety among Shanghaes; and that the facts known to 
us would lead to the inference, that the sources of their 
present distinctions are referable to the same causes that 
have produced the mongrelism of poultry generally, i. e. 
indiscriminate breeding in and in. 
Exhibitions of poultry, as now constituted, will be recog¬ 
nized as the safest criterion of the merits of fowls, not 
merely as ornamental and fancy birds, but in their actual 
value as egg-producers and for the kitchen. If, therefore, 
our view of the position now occupied by Shanghaes in 
public estimation places them somewhat lower in the list 
than heretofore, there naturally arises the presumption 
that they must have failed, in a greater or less degree, to 
comply with the expectations that had been held out for 
their remuneration; for it must be denied that the de¬ 
preciated position now occupied by them is not referable solely 
to their less honourable mention in prize-lists. There are 
charges preferred against them abstractedly, without respect 
either to present short-comings or past excellence at Bingley 
Hall, or elsewhere. Bnt have they, let us ask, truly deserved 
such censure ? Have they really fallen short of the good 
character claimed for them by those who most carefully and 
impartially stated their pretensions to the favour of poultry- 
keepers ? We venture to think not; though at the same 
time perfectly willing to admit that the too sanguine antici¬ 
pations of many of their admirers have not been realized. 
Novelty of form and character, unquestioned productiveness, 
to which no bounds at first were assigned, and general 
superiority over other fowls in respect of all economical 
properties, were each and all, unhesitatingly, and, we must 
add, most unwisely, asserted on their behalf. The Spanish 
wore thus represented as out-done as layers, while the 
quality of the Shanghaes as dead poultry was often placed 
over even the Dorking and the Game fowl. Here was the I 
error; by asking too much for them, the real merits of the 
bird were depreciated, since they failed to fulfil all the 
promises of their injudicious friends. Disappointment at 
not obtaining all that had been thus rashly promised 
induced comparative neglect; and hence their present 
position. Now, had their properties been stated as abun¬ 
dant layers at a time of year when eggs are always scarce ; 
steady and attentive mothers ; the chickens being singularly 
hardy, and free from the usual maladies of that age : early 
maturity and attainment of a great weight of meat of an average 
quality at an unusually early period; a disposition of so 
quiet and contented a character as to permit their being 
kept under circumstances where other poultry would be 
both an annoyance to ourselves and a nuisance to our 
neighbours ; their present position would have been avoided. 
These are the points, independent of individual ideas of 
mere appearance, which should have been relied on in any 
statement of their merits; and fully sufficient would they 
have been found to warrant the warmest recommendation 
based on such grounds. 
But there is an old saying, which teaches us that. “ there 
is some good even in the greatest evil” and another, that “ it. is 
an ill wind that blows nobody good." Thus the inordinate and 
excessive sums that from various causes were lavished on 
these birds have brought about one good result., though 
individually, and for the time their character has been 
lowered. So large a number have been bred, eggs and 
chickens have been so widely disseminated, that those in 
whose eyes the Shangliae fowl has possessed qualifications 
for strictly economical purposes, may now look forward, 
from their present abundance and consequent cheapness, to 
their occupancy of many a farm and cottage-yard to which 
their previous cost would have forbidden entrance. 
RETENTIVE VITALITY OE EGGS. 
I wish to communicate one or two facts to the poultry 
world, through the columns of the Cottage Gardener, with 
respect to eggs, that will probably be received as conclusive 
evidence of how surely they may be sent a distance with¬ 
out injury, and of how retentive they are of the principle 
of life they contain. 
A little while since I put eleven under a hen which had 
been sent to me as broody. She was placed, as is my usual 
method, in a covered basket, such as fowls are usually sold 
in at Stevens', taken off every morning at the same hour to 
feed and refresh herself, put on again, and the basket cover 
fastened down. At the end of a fortnight the hen became 
