12 
a 
book on Poultry speaks of there being a fine and numerous class at 
the Plymouth Show in 1870, each bird showing an element of Malay 
blood. They were well known then among the Cornish miners, and 
used by them in the old fighting days, but were never of much use 
for spurs, being too heavy to rise. Some fifteen years ago they were 
improved by the introduction of black Indian game, thus producing 
larger specimens and male birds with solid black breasts, but of 
whatever origin they were, it is now a well-established breed, for no 
variety breeds truer for shape and feather. 
