February
1st 1989
Dear
Bill,
Thank
you for your letter dated Jan 27 which was very good written. Enclosed I send
you 2 clippings of a German poultry paper with pictures of 2 rumpless female
chickens, the Kaulhuhn is a common European rumpless and an Araucana. It is
easy to see that the last has a longer back, because she has one vertebra more
as the Kaulhuhn has. That one vertebra is special for the Araucana.
I
have a book on Japanese fowls. There is a breed which is rumpless, the Uzura-O
chicken. There is also a rumpless variety of the Japanese Bantam or Chabo.
Pictures are in the famous poultry number of the National
Geographic Magazine of April 1927. Rumplessness is a lethal factor when
breeding the birds. Therefore breeders often bred a rumpless bird to one with
a tail. Therefore these varieties throw birds with tail from time to time
which keep them able to duplicate. Japan, being islands, imported all kind of
chickens before 1636 and developed the birds in their own way. There was no
contact for more as 200 years with other countries in this period, it was
forbidden to build vessels and to sail for the Japanese. The only contact they
had was with the Dutch trade center on the small island Decima. This period
lasted from 1636-1865. Japan cannot have been so important in exporting
poultry during that time, but there are signals of Japanese poultry in the
Netherlands on old paintings from that period.
In
the book of Houwink from which I quoted about the chicken bones, there is also
a part on the poultry culture in Australia round 1909. He writes for his book
(part II 1909): "The oldest type of fowl in NSW is the Asiatic type,
imported centuries ago by sailors and bred by the people of Australia. It was
a certain game fowl, from which the beautiful Australian Game fowl is bred and
his miniature the Australian Game Bantam. A wild fowl (chicken) never existed
in Australia."
I
do hope it is better with your eyes now, or you can find a reader for my
letter. Is there a chance to have a transplant now?
I
am very glad with your file of books. It happens that I have 2 baby-Cochin
bantams from imported eggs only 2 weeks now but promising birds. By seeing the
wings it must be a pair. They are mottled. I never had them earlier. I never
was breeding so late in the season, but I have eggs in the incubator. In fact
this is too much work for me.
Wishing
you the best, sincerely,