Weekend Birdery: “Cornish Game Hen”
Last week I mentioned the “movement” to replace Georgia’s state bird, the Brown Thrasher, with the Cornish chicken, a.k.a., Cornish Game Hen. Wikipedia has this to say:
A Cornish game hen, also sometimes called a Cornish hen, poussin, Rock Cornish hen, or simply Rock Cornish, is a young chicken sold whole. Despite the name, it is not a game bird, but actually a typical chicken that is slaughtered at a young age and therefore is smaller in size. Though the bird is called a “hen,” it can be either male or female.
Most sources credit Alphonsine and Jacques Makowsky of Connecticut for developing the small bird in the mid-1950s.
So, for those keeping score at home: The Cornish Game Hen is not necessarily a hen; it is not game; and it is not Cornish. I think that puts it in its own special taxonomic order on the tree of life. Right there next to the “Chilean Sea Bass.”
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