on the Birds of Calcutta. 389 



It is a curious instance of how little is currently known of the 

 zoology of India, that, to this day, authors who write on the 

 history of the common fowl generally repeat the statement that 

 "its original stock is very uncertain ; but it is supposed to be 

 descended from a wild species still met with in the island of 

 Java \" The truth being, that the genuine wild common fowl is 

 familiarly known to every sportsman in all Northern India, and 

 is with justice highly prized as a game-bird : abounding in all 

 suitable localities from the sub-Himalayan region on the north, 

 to the Vindhyan range on the south, and spreading farther south- 

 ward along the eastern coast of the peninsula to some distance 

 beyond Vizagapatam (in the ' Northern Circars ') ; while to the 

 eastward it likewise abounds in Assam, and all along the eastern 

 side of the Bay of Bengal throughout the Burmese countries, the 

 Malayan peninsula, Java and Sumatra*. G. Sonneratii begins to 

 replace it on the Vindhyan range of hills, bordering the great 

 table-land of the peninsula of India to the northward, and wholly 

 replaces it in Southern India generally; while in Ceylon two other 

 wild species occur, the hen of one of these being figured by the 

 name of G. Stanleyi in Hardwicke's ' Illustrations' f. 



The different species of Jungle-fowl have hitherto been cari- 

 catured in the figures that have been meant to represent them, 

 the types of which are alone to be met with in the poultry-yard. 

 The general figure is remarkably pheasant-like, and the tail com- 

 monly droops, and I have never seen it more elevated than that of 

 a pheasant sometimes is (though it is more raised in G. Sonne- 

 ratii) . A very characteristic feature of the Bengal bird, and which 

 I have seen in all Indian examples of the species, including some 

 from Tipperah, did not occur in such as I have had alive from 

 Assam and from Arracan, nor have I ever seen it well shown in 

 a domestic fowl : this consists in the vivid whiteness of the large 

 round lappet of naked skin below the ear-coverts, which thus 

 forms a well-defined and very conspicuous auricle-like patch, 

 contrasting strongly with the crimson of the comb and other 

 naked parts, and with the deep red-orange of the adjoining 

 feathers. This lappet is of a bright dead-white tinged with blue 

 in the hen ; and it certainly helps much to ornament those which 

 possess it. The only other variation which I have observed in 

 many dozens of skins, from the most various localities, is that 

 Himalayan specimens, both cocks and hens, are slightly paler, 



* In Irwin's memoir on Afghanistan, J. A. S. B. viii. p. 1007, it is stated 

 that this bird is found in the wild state in the whole of Turkistan, especially 

 Balkh. This is a considerable extension of its range, as generally under- 

 stood. — E. B. 



f One of the Ceylon species has been named G. Lafayeftii, but I do not 

 know by whom. 



