258 FOWLS. Chap. VII. 



changing their character and in increasing their number. 

 Brahma Pootras, according to an account lately published in 

 America, offer a good instance of a breed, lately formed by 

 a cross, which can be truly propagated. The well-known 

 Sebright Bantams offer another and similar instance. Hence 

 it may be concluded that not only the Game-breed but that 

 all our breeds are probably the descendants of the Malayan 

 or Indian variety of G. bankiva. If so, this species has varied 

 greatly since it was first domesticated ; but there has been 

 ample time, as we shall now show. 



History of the Fowl. — Rutimeyer found no remains of the 

 fowl in the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings ; but, according to 

 Jeitteles, 33 such have certainly since been found associated 

 with extinct animals and prehistoric remains. It is, there- 

 fore a strange fact that the fowl is not mentioned in the Old 

 Testament, nor figured on the ancient Egyptian monuments. 

 It is not referred to by Homer or Hesiod (about 900 B.C.) ; 

 but is mentioned by Theognis and Aristophanes between 

 400 and 500 B.C. It is figured on some of the Babylonian 

 cylinders, between the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., of 

 which Mr. Layard sent me an impression ; and on the Harpy 

 Tomb in Lycia, about 600 B.C. : so that the fowl apj)arently 

 reached Europe in a domesticated condition somewhere about 

 the sixth centurv B.C. It had travelled still farther westward 

 by the time of the Christian .era, for it was found in Britain 



33 c Die vorgeschichtlichen Alter- aversion. The natives of the Pellew 



thiimer,' II. Theil, 1872, p. 5. Dr. Islands would not eat the fowl, nor will 



Pickering, in his ' Races of Man,' the Indians in some parts of S. 



1850, p. 374, says that the head and America. For the ancient history of 



neck of a fowl is carried in a Tribute- the fowl, see also Volz, ' Beitr'age zur 



procession to Thoutmousis III. (1445 Culturgeschichte,' 1852, s. 77; and 



B.C.) ; but Mr. Birch of the British Isid. Geoftroy St.-Hilaire, ' Hist. Nat 



Museum doubts whether the figure Gen.,' torn. iii. p. 61. Mr. Crawfurd 



can be identified as the head of a has given an admirable history of the 



fowl. Some caution is necessary with fowl in his paper ' On the Relation 



reference to the absence of figures of Domesticated Animals to Civilisa- 



of the fowl on the ancient Egyptian tion,' read before the Brit. Assoc, at 



monuments, on account of the strong Oxford in 1860, and since printed 



and widely prevalent prejudice against separately: I quote from him on the 



this bird. I am informed by the Greek poet Theognis, and on the 



Rev. S. Erhardt that on the east coast Harpy Tomb described by Sir C. 



of Africa, from 4° to 6° south of the Fellowes. I quote from a letter of 



equator, most of the pagan tribes at Mr. Blyth's u-ith respect to the Insti- 



the present day hold the fowl ir. tu^s of Manu. 





