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
2-1/4 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.
"A great hue and cry," says Miss Watts, "has been raised against the
Cochin-Chinas as fowls for the table, but we believe none have bestowed
attention on breeding them with a view to this valuable consideration.
Square, compact, short-legged birds have been neglected for a certain
colour of feather, and a broad chest was given up for the wedge-form at
the very time that was pronounced a fault in the fowl. It is said that
yellow-legged fowls are yellow also in the skin, and that white skin and
white legs accompany each other; but how pertinaciously the yellow leg
of the Cochin is adhered to! Yet all who have bred them will attest
that a little careful breeding would perpetuate white-legged Cochins.
Exhibitions are generally excellent; but to this fowl they certainly
have only been injurious, by exaggerating useless and fancy qualities at
the expense of those which are solid and useful. Who would favour, or
even sanction, a Dorking in which size and shape, and every property we
value in them, was sacrificed to an endeavour to breed to a particular
colour? and this is what we have been doing with the Cochin-China. Many
breeders say, eat Cochins while very young; but we have found them much
better for the table as fowls than as chickens. A fine Cochin, from five
to seven months old, is like a turkey, and very juicy and fine in
flavour."
A peculiar characteristic of these birds, technically called "fluff," is
a quantity of beautifully soft, long feathers, covering the thighs till
they project considerably, and garnishing all the hinder parts of the
bird in the same manner, so that the broadest part of the bird is
behind. Its quality is a good indication of the breed; if fine and downy
the birds are probably well-bred, but if rank and coarse they are
inferior. The cocks are frequently somewhat scanty in "fluff," but
should be chosen with as much as possible; but vulture-hocks which often
accompany the heaviest feathered birds should be avoided, as they now
disqualify at the best shows. "The fluff," says a good authority, "in
the hen especially, should so cover the tail feathers as to give the
appearance of a very short back, the line taking an upward direction
from within an inch or so of the point of junction with the hackle." The
last joint of the wings folds up, so that the ends of the flight
feathers are concealed by the middle feathers, and their extremities are
again covered by the copious saddle, which peculiarity has caused them
to be also called the ostrich-fowl.
A good Cochin cock should be compact, large, and square built; broad
across the loins and hind-quarters; with a deep keel; broad, short back;
short neck; small, delicately-shaped, well-arched head; short, strong,
curved beak; rather small, finely and evenly serrated, straight, single,
erect comb, wholly free from reduplications and sprigs; brilliant red
face, and pendant wattles; long hanging ear-lobe, of pure red, white
being inadmissible; bright, bold eye, approaching the plumage in colour;
rich, full, long hackle; small, closely-folded wings; short tail,
scarcely any in some fine specimens, not very erect, with slightly
twisted glossy feathers falling over it like those of the ostrich; stout
legs set widely apart, yellow and heavily feathered to the toe; and
erect carriage. The chief defect of the breed is narrowness of breast,
which should therefore be sought for as full as possible.
The hen's body is much deeper in proportion than that of the cock. She
resembles him upon most points, but differs in some; her comb having
many indentations; the fluff being softer, and of almost silky quality;
the tail has upright instead of falling feathers, and comes to a blunt
point; and her carriage is less upright.
Cochins lose their beauty earlier than any other breed, and moult with
more difficulty each time. They are in their greatest beauty at from
nine to eighteen months old. The cocks' tails increase with age. In
buying Cochins avoid clean legs, fifth toes, which show that it has been
crossed with the Dorking, double combs that betray Malay blood, and long
tails, particularly taking care that the cock has not, and ascertaining
that he never had, sickle feathers. The cock ought not to weigh less
than ten or eleven pounds, and a very fine bird will reach thirteen; the
hens from eight to ten pounds.
The principal colours now bred are Buff, Cinnamon, Partridge, Grouse,
Black, and White. The Buff and White are the most popular.
Buff birds may have black in the tails of both sexes, but the less there
is the better. Black-pencilling in the hackle is considered
objectionable at good shows. The cock's neck hackles, wing coverts,
back, and saddle hackles, are usually of a rich gold colour, but his
breast and the lower parts of his body should match with those of his
hens. Buff birds generally produce chickens lighter than themselves.
Most birds become rather lighter at each moult. In making up an
exhibition pen, observe that Grouse and Partridge hens should have a
black-breasted cock; and that Buff and Cinnamon birds should not be
placed together, but all the birds in the pen should be either Buff or
Cinnamon. The Cinnamon are of two shades, the Light Cinnamon and the
Silver, which is a pale washy tint, that looks very delicate and pretty
when perfectly clean. Silver Cinnamon hens should not be penned with a
pale Yellow cock, but with one as near to their own tint as can be
found. Mr. Andrews's celebrated strain of Cochins sometimes produced
both cocks and hens which were Silver Cinnamon, with streaks of gold in
the hackle.
In Partridge birds the cock's neck and saddle hackles should be of a
bright red, striped with black, his back and wings of dark red, the
latter crossed with a well-defined bar of metallic greenish black, and
the breast and under parts of his body should be black, and not mottled.
The hen's neck hackles should be of bright gold, striped with black, and
all the other portions of her body of a light brown, pencilled with very
dark brown. The Grouse are very dark Partridge, have a very rich
appearance, and are particularly beautiful when laced. They are far from
common, and well worth cultivating. The Partridge are more mossed in
their markings, and not so rich in colour as the Grouse. Cuckoo Cochins
are marked like the Cuckoo Dorkings, and difficult to breed free of
yellow.
The White and Black were introduced later than the others. Mr. Baily
says the White were principally bred from a pair imported and given to
the Dean of Worcester, and which afterwards became the property of Mrs.
Herbert, of Powick. White Cochins for exhibition must have yellow legs,
and they are prone to green. The origin of the Black is disputed. It is
said to be a sport from the White, or to have been produced by a cross
between the Buff and the White. By careful breeding it has been fixed as
a decided sub-variety, but it is difficult, if not almost impossible, to
rear a cock to complete maturity entirely free from coloured feathers.
They keep perfectly pure in colour till six months old, after which age
they sometimes show a golden patch or red feathers upon the wing, or a
few streaks of red upon the hackle, of so dark a shade as to be
imperceptible except in a strong light, and are often found on close
examination to have white under feathers, and others barred with white.
The legs in all the colours should be yellow. Flesh-coloured legs are
admissible, but green, black, or white are defects. In the Partridge and
Grouse a slight wash, as of indigo, appears to be thrown over them,
which in the Black assumes a still darker shade; but in all three yellow
should appear partially even here beneath the scales, as the pink tinge
does in the Buff and White birds.
Cochin-Chinas being much inclined to accumulate internal fat, which
frequently results in apoplexy, should not be fed on food of a very
fattening character, such as Indian corn. They are liable to have
inflamed feet if they are obliged to roost on very high, small, or sharp
perches, or allowed to run over sharp-edged stones.
They are also subject to an affection called White Comb, which is a
white mouldy eruption on the comb and wattles like powdered chalk; and
if not properly treated in time, will spread over the whole body,
causing the feathers to fall off. It is caused by want of cleanliness,
over-stimulating or bad food, and most frequently by want of green food,
which must be supplied, and the place rubbed with an ointment composed
of two parts of cocoanut oil, and one of turmeric powder, to which some
persons add one half part of sulphur; and six grains of jalap may be
given to clear the bowels.