Chap. VII. THEIR PARENTAGE. 247 



The last species to be mentioned, namely, Gallus bankiva, has a 

 much wider geographical range than the three previous species ; it 

 inhabits Northern India as far west as Sinde, and ascends the 

 Himalaya to a height of 4000 ft. ; it inhabits Burmah, the Malay 

 peninsula, the Indo-Chinese countries, the Philippine Islands, and 

 the Malayan archipelego as far eastward as Timor. This species 

 varies considerably in the wild state. Mr. Blyth informs me that 

 the specimens, both male and female, brought from near the 

 Himalaya, are rather paler coloured than those from other parts of 

 India ; whilst those from the Malay peninsula and Java are brighter 

 coloured than the Indian birds. I have seen specimens from these 

 countries, and the difference of tint in the hackles was conspicuous. 

 The Malayan hens were a shade redder on the breast and neck than 

 the Indian hens. The Malayan males generally had a red ear-lappet, 

 instead of a white one as in India ; but Mr. Blyth has seen one 

 Indian specimen without the white ear-lappet. The legs are leaden 

 blue in the Indian, whereas they show some tendency to be yellowish 

 in the Malayan and Javan specimens. In the former Mr. Blyth 

 finds the tarsus remarkably variable in length. According to 

 Temminck 20 the Timor specimens differ as a local race from that of 

 Java. These several wild varieties have not as yet been ranked as 

 distinct species ; if they should, as is not unlikely, be hereafter thus 

 ranked, the circumstance would be quite immaterial as far as the 

 parentage and differences of our domestic breeds are concerned. 

 The wild G. bankiva agrees most closely with the black-breasted 

 red Game-breed, in colouring and in all other respects, except in 

 being smaller, and in the tail being carried more horizontally. But 

 the manner in which the tail is carried is highly variable in many 

 of our breeds, for, as Mr. Brent informs me, the tail slopes much in 

 the Malays, is erect in the Games and some other breeds, and is 

 more than erect in Dorkings, Bantams, &c. There is one other 

 difference namely, that in G. bankiva, according to Mr. Blyth, the 

 neck-hackles when first moulted are replaced during two or three 

 months not by other hackles, as with our domestic poultry, but by 

 short blackish feathers. 21 Mr. Brent, however, has remarked that 

 these black feathers remain in the wild bird after the development 

 of the lower hackles, and appear in the domestic bird at the same 

 time with them : so that the only difference is that the lower hackles 

 are replaced more slowly in the wild than in the tame bird ; but as 

 confinement is known sometimes to affect the masculine plumage, 

 this slight difference cannot be considered of any importance. It is 

 a significant fact that the voice of both the male and female G. 

 bankiva closely resembles, as Mr. Blyth and others have noted, the 

 voice of both sexes of the common domestic fowl ; but the last note 

 of the crow of the wild bird is rather less prolonged. Captain 



20 'Coup-d'oeil general sur l'lnde 21 Mr. Blyth, in ' Annals and Mag. 



Archipelagique,' torn. iii. (184S), p. of Nat. Hist.,' 2nd ser., vol. i. (1848), 



177 ; see also Mr. Blyth in ' Indian p. 455 

 Sporting Review,' vol. ii. p. 5, 1856. 



