The Burmese or Burmese Bantam is a British

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of bantam chicken. It apparently originated in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, formerly Burma, in the latter part of the nineteenth century. By the time of the First World War it was thought to be extinct. Some surviving individuals were discovered in the 1970s and were bred with white

Booted Bantam , country = , distribution = , standard = , use = show , apa = feather legged , aba = , ee = yes , pcgb = rare true bantam , maleweight = maximum 850 g , femaleweight = m ...

s to recreate the breed.

History

Charles Darwin mentions the Burmese Bantam in his ''

Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication ''The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication'' is a book by Charles Darwin that was first published in January 1868. A large proportion of the book contains detailed information on the domestication of animals and plants but it al ...

'' of 1868. According to the Poultry Club of Great Britain the Burmese derives from birds sent to the United Kingdom from Burma in the 1880s by an officer in the British Army. William Flamank Entwisle received one of these birds, apparently a carrier of the

creeper gene Creeper chickens are characterised by abnormally short legs, so short that the body is carried a few centimetres from the ground. This chondrodystrophy (dwarfism) is caused by a recessive lethal allele, ''Cp''. A number of breeds display the ...

, and bred from it. By the beginning of the First World War the breed was believed to be extinct. In 1970 some were given to Andrew Sheppy, who had established the Rare Poultry Society. He bred them with white

Booted Bantam , country = , distribution = , standard = , use = show , apa = feather legged , aba = , ee = yes , pcgb = rare true bantam , maleweight = maximum 850 g , femaleweight = m ...

s and successfully re-established the breed. An attempt has been made in Holland to re-create the Burmese by cross-breeding other bantams, but the results do not closely resemble the birds shown in historic drawings by Harrison Weir and

J.W. Ludlow JW may refer to: *Jack Wills, a clothing company *Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian religious group *'' John Wick'', an action film starring Keanu Reeves *Joko Widodo, 7th President of Indonesia, 16th Governor of Jakarta and 15th Mayor of Surakarta ...

of the original stock.

Characteristics

The Burmese resembles the Booted Bantam, but is smaller and lower to the ground; it has a small crest. The legs are short, with heavy feathering. The

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

is single, the earlobes are small and the

wattle Wattle or wattles may refer to: Plants *''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australia and South Africa **''Acacia'', large genus of shrubs and trees, native to Australasia **Black wattle, c ...

s drooping and fairly long. Only one colour is recognised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain: the white. The Dutch re-creation is black.

References

{{True bantams Chicken breeds Bantam chicken breeds Animal breeds on the RBST Watchlist