on Dr. Jerdon's ' Birds of India.' 155 



the same species*. In localities where the Bengal Jungle-fowl 

 is common, I have sought in vain for any traces of intermixture 

 of its blood among the domestic poultry bred abundantly in the 

 neighbouring villages, and which are left pretty much to find 

 their own food in the adjacent jungle. In Burma, on the con- 

 trary, such intermixture is commonly observable, so that the 

 wild and tame poultry fairly grade into each other ; but I never 

 saw the wild bird with legs more or less greenish or even yel- 

 low, as are or were some of the birds in the Zoological Gardens. 

 Among the Karens I have come upon tame Jungle-fowl 

 hatched and reared by domestic hens j and the difference of 

 their manner from those of ordinary fowls, their companions, 

 was strikingly conspicuous : they would rapidly creep under 

 cover at sight of a stranger ; and I observed that they preferred 

 roosting upon trees to taking shelter with the other poultry. 

 The Malayan race resembles the Burmese; but the cocks are 

 considerably deeper and redder in colouring : and the range of 

 this race is noticed by Mr. Wallace to extend to Lombok and 

 Timor ; it is said also to inhabit the Philippines. In Irwin's 

 " Memoir on Afghanistan " (J. A. S. B. viii. p. 1007) it is stated 

 that " the common fowl is found in its wild state in the whole 

 of Turkestan, especially Balkh.^' Surely this is a mistake ! In 

 the Asiatic Society's Museum at Calcutta there is a Bengal 

 Jungle-hen with well-developed spurs. 



The very extensive distribution of the Common Fowl in its 

 wild state contrasts remarkably with the limited range of G. 

 stanleyi, which is confined to Ceylon, as G. sonnerati is to the 

 peninsular portion of India. The G. sonnerati of the list of hill- 

 birds given in Royle's ' Himalayan Botany ' refers, of course, 

 to G.ferrugineus, which occurs up to about 4000 feet elevation, 

 the name "jungle-fowl" (doubtless supplied by Royle) having 

 been translated as G. sonnerati ! However the voice may vary 

 in the multitudinous races of domestic fowls, it is only by 

 modifications of the same note, being essentially different from 

 that of G. sonnerati or the dissyllabic note of G. stanleyi. I 

 have remarked the shedding of the nuchal ruff after the breed- 



* For remarks on the domestication of the Turkey and the Guinea-fowl, 

 vide J. A. S. B. xxix. p. 387 et seq. 



