Buff and White Cochin-China. Malay Cock. Light and Dark Brahmas.
CHAPTER X.
COCHIN-CHINAS, OR SHANGHAES.
Like many other fowls these possess a name which is incorrectly applied, for they came from Shanghae, not Cochin-China, where they were comparatively unknown. Mr. Fortune, who, from his travels in China, is well qualified to give an opinion, states that they are a Chinese breed, kept in great numbers at Shanghae; the real Cochin-China breed being small and elegantly shaped. But all attempts to give them the name of the port from which they were brought have failed, and the majority of breeders persist in calling them Cochins. In the United States both names are used, the feather-legged being called Shanghaes, and the clean-legged Cochins.
The first Shanghae fowls brought to this country were sent from India to Her Majesty, which gave them great importance; and the eggs having been freely distributed by the kindness of the Queen and the Prince Consort, the breed was soon widely spread. They were first introduced into this country when the northern ports of China, including Shanghae, were thrown open to European vessels on the conclusion of the Chinese war in 1843; but some assign the date of their introduction from 1844 to 1847, and say that those called Cochins, exhibited by the Queen in 1843, were not the true breed, having been not only entirely without feathers on the shanks, but also altogether different in form and general characteristics. A pair which were sent by Her Majesty for exhibition at the Dublin Cattle Show in April, 1846, created such a sensation from their great size and immense weight, and the full, loud, deep-pitched crowing of the cock, that almost every one seemed desirous to possess some of the breed, and enormous prices were given for the eggs and chickens. With his propensity for exaggeration, Paddy boasted that they laid five eggs in two days, each weighing three ounces, that the fowls equalled turkeys in size, and "Cochin eggs became in as great demand as though they had been laid by the fabled golden goose. Philosophers, poets, merchants, and sweeps had alike partook of the mania; and although the latter could hardly come up to the price of a real Cochin, there were plenty of vagabond dealers about, with counterfeit crossed birds of all kinds, which were advertised to be the genuine article. For to such a pitch did the excitement rise, that they who never kept a fowl in their lives, and would hardly know a Bantam from a Dorking, puzzled their shallow brains as to the proper place to keep them, and the proper diet to feed them on." Their justly-deserved popularity speedily grew into a mania, and the price which had been from fifteen to thirty shillings each, then considered a high price for a fowl, rose to ten pounds for a fine specimen, and ultimately a hundred guineas was repeatedly paid for a single cock, and was not an uncommon price for a pair of really fine birds. "They were afterwards bred," says Miss Watts, "for qualities difficult of attainment, and, as the result proved, little worth trying for," and "fowls with many excellent qualities were blamed for not being perfect," and they fell from their high place, and were as unjustly depreciated as they had been unduly exalted.
"Had these birds," wrote Mr. Baily many years since, "been shy breeders—if like song birds the produce of a pair were four, or at most five, birds in the year, prices might have been maintained; but as they are marvellous layers they increased. They bred in large numbers, and consequently became cheaper, and then the mania ended, because those who dealt most largely in them did so not from a love of the birds or the pursuit, but as a speculation. As they had over-praised them before, they now treated them with contempt. Anything like a moderate profit was despised, and the birds were left to their own merits. These were sufficient to ensure their popularity, and now after fluctuating in value more than anything except shares, after being over-praised and then abused, they have remained favourites with a large portion of the public, sell at a remunerating price, and form one of the largest classes at all the great exhibitions." This has proved to be a perfectly correct view, and the breed is now firmly established in public estimation, and unusually fine birds will still sell for from five to twenty pounds each. The mania did great service to the breeding and improvement of poultry by awakening an interest in the subject throughout the kingdom which has lasted.
They are the best of all fowls for a limited space, and not inclined to wander even when they have an extensive run. They cannot fly, and a fence three feet high will keep them in. But if kept in a confined space they must have an unlimited supply of green food. They give us eggs when they are most expensive, and indeed, with regard to new-laid eggs, when they are almost impossible to be had at any price. They begin to lay soon after they are five months old, regardless of the season or weather, and lay throughout the year, except when requiring to sit, which they do twice or thrice a year, and some oftener. Pullets will sometimes lay at fourteen weeks, and want to sit before they are six months old. Cochins have been known to lay twice in a day, but not again on the following day, and the instances are exceptional. Their eggs are of a pale chocolate colour, of excellent flavour, and usually weigh 2¼ ounces each. They are excellent sitters and mothers. Pullets will frequently hatch, lay again, and sit with the chickens of the first brood around them. Cochins are most valuable as sitters early in the year, being broody when other fowls are beginning to lay; but unless cooped they are apt to leave their chickens too soon, especially for early broods, and lay again. They are very hardy, and their chickens easy to rear, doing well even in bleak places without any unusual care. But they are backward in fledging, chickens bred from immature fowls being the most backward. Those which are cockerels show their flight feathers earliest. They are very early matured.
A writer in the Poultry Chronicle well says: "These fowls were sent to provide food for man; by many they are not thought good table fowls; but when others fail, if you keep them, you shall never want the luxury of a really new-laid egg on your breakfast table. The snow may fall, the frost may be thick on your windows when you first look out on a December morning, but your Cochins will provide you eggs. Your children shall learn gentleness and kindness from them, for they are kind and gentle, and you shall be at peace with your neighbours, for they will not wander nor become depredators. They have fallen in price because they were unnaturally exalted; but their sun is not eclipsed; they have good qualities, and valuable. They shall now be within the reach of all; and will make the delight of many by their domestic habits, which will allow them to be kept where others would be an annoyance." They will let you take them off their roost, handle and examine them, and put them back without struggling.
The fault of the Cochin-Chinas as table birds is, that they produce most meat on the inferior parts; thus, there is generally too little on the breast which is the prime part of a fowl, while the leg which is an inferior part, is unusually fleshy, but it must be admitted that the leg is more tender than in other breeds. A greater quantity of flesh may be raised within a given time, on a certain quantity of food, from these fowls than from any other breed. The cross with the Dorking is easily reared, and produces a very heavy and well-shaped fowl for the table, and a good layer.