.'350 Transactio)is. — Zoology. 



impression iievertlieless might remain with those who saw 

 the creature ahve, and were acquainted with its currently-re- 

 ported history, that its habits — so opposed to those of the 

 ordinary fowl of the farmyard — could only have been those of 

 a hybrid bird, it behoves, then, to account for these assumed 

 peculiarities uf maimer ; and in the fact that the bird had 

 adopted feral instincts and habits a clue is given to read 

 the case aright. 



Darwin,''' after referring to Wallace's f views, says : 

 ■" Nevertheless I do not doubt that the simple fact of animals 

 and plants becoming feral does cause some tendency to re- 

 version to the primitive state ; though this tendency has been 

 much exaggerated by some authors." He also admits :i^ " that 

 with crossed animals a similar tendency to the recovery of lost 

 ■characters holds good even with instincts." 



That a healthy and robust chicken, reared under primitive 

 -conditions and in the proximity of a forest or waste lands, 

 should forsake its more domesticated companions, and prefer 

 to lead a free and roving life, accords with the above savant's 

 teachings. It needs no stretch of the imagination, then, to 

 conceive how the reputed semi-nocturnal rail-like habit is 

 associated with no other than a return to that of the wild 

 stock. The occasional visit to the poultry-yard towards night- 

 fall may have been partly in search of food, but, doubtless, 

 also due to sexual manifestations, for a knowledge of the pre- 

 sence of its kindred in the neighbourhood would be an intui- 

 tion easily acquired. ^lucli of the averred shyness and timidity 

 may be attributed to the bird's forest seclusion and fear of 

 man. Its skulking, stealthy gait (so characteristic of the 

 wekas and alien Eallidce) when in quest of food denoted that 

 •ever-watchful care foi- its safety inherent and necessary to 

 wild birds continually on the alert for hidden enemies. 



The diminutive drooping tail, mucli relied on as a ralline 

 feature, is at best weak evidence of hybridity, nor specially 

 favours reversion to feral habit. It, like the plumose, hairy, 

 ■or tlocculent feathering thought to be so extraordinary by the 

 New Zealand observers, rather represents what is character- 

 istic of certain breeds of fowl ; while the grass-eating pro- 

 clivity (witness Cochin-fowl habit) may not only be referred to 

 breed, but with greater probability forced upon the biixl by 

 scarcity of graniferous diet. That this reputed hybrid, but 

 nevertheless undoubted fov^d, was of mixed derivative origin is 

 denoted by its external characters superadded to by points in 

 its osteological construction. 



* " Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. ii., p. 32. 

 t" Jour. Proc. Linn. Soc." (1858), iii., p. GO. 

 I Loc. cit., ii., p. 43. 



