[5]: 87  Feather-footed bantams have been present in Europe for hundreds of years; birds of this type are pictured in the works of Ulisse Aldrovandi and Aelbert Cuyp in the seventeenth century, and Eleazar Albin in the eighteenth.

[6]: 2 [7]: 313 [8]: 32 Albin's description of 1738 says of the bantam cock "... from the Thighs grew long stiff Feathers reaching beyond his Knees two Inches, which they call Boots; his Legs were also feathered down to his Toes ...", while of the hen he says "... she was booted and feathered down to her Toes, as all the true Bantam kind are"; he is clear that these birds were originally brought from "Bantam in India".

[5]: 87 [14]: 75 The Entente Européenne lists thirty-three colour variants, of which twenty-six are recognised at European level.

[5]: 87  The American Poultry Association list five variants: black, millefleur, porcelain, self-blue and white.

Hens may lay about 120 eggs per year, with an average weight of some 30 g;[15]: 35  the colour varies from tinted to white.