290 



FOWL 



after the crops are cut in straggling parties of from 10 to 20. The 

 crow to which the cock gives utterance morning and evening is 

 described as being just like that of a Bantam, but never prolonged 

 as in some domestic birds. The hen breeds from January to July, 

 according to the locality ; and lays from 8 to 1 2 creamy- white 

 eggs, occasionally scraping together a few leaves or a little dry 

 grass by way of a nest. The so-called G. giganteiti^, formerly taken 

 by some ornithologists for a distinct species, is now regarded as a 

 tame breed of G. ferrugineus or bankiva. The second good species is 

 the Grey Jungle-Fowl, G. sonnerati, whose range begins a little to 

 the northward of the limits of the preceding, and it occupies the 

 southern part of the Indian peninsula, without being found else- 

 where. The cock has the shaft of the neck-hackles dilated, forming 

 a horny plate, the terminal portion of which is like a drop of 

 yellow sealing-wax. His call is said to be very peculiar, being a 

 broken and imperfect kind of crow, quite unlike that of G. ferni^ 

 gineus, and impossible, says Jerdon, to describe. The two species, 

 where their respective ranges overlap, occasionally interbreed in a 

 wild state, and the present readily crosses in confinement Avith 

 domestic poultry, but the hybrids are nearly always sterile. The 

 third species is the Cingalese Jungle-Fowl, G. stardcyi (the G. lafay- 

 etfii of some authors), peculiar to Ceylon. This also greatly 

 resembles in plumage some domestic birds, but the cock is red 

 beneath, and has a yellow comb with a red edge, and purplish-red 

 cheeks and wattles. He has also a singularly different voice, his 

 crow being dissyllabic. This bird crosses readily with tame hens, 

 but the hybrids are said to be infertile. The fourth species, 



G. varius (the G. furcatus of some authors), 

 inhabits Java and the islands eastwards 

 as far as Flores. This differs remarkably 

 from the others in not possessing hackles, 

 and in having a large unserrated comb 

 of red and blue, and only a single chin- 

 wattle. The predominance of green in 

 its plumage is another easy mark of 

 distinction. Hybrids betAveen this 

 species and domestic birds are often 

 produced, but they are most commonly sterile. Some of them 

 have been mistaken for distinct species, as those which have received 

 the names of G. xneus and G. temmincki. 



Several circumstances seem to render it likely that Fowls were 

 first domesticated in Burma or the countries adjacent thereto, and 

 it is the tradition of the Chinese that they received their poultry 

 from the West about the year 1400 B.C. By the Institutes of 

 Manu, the date of which is variously assigned from 1200 to 

 800 B.C., the tame Fowl is forbidden, though the wild is alloAved 



Gallus varius. (After Swainson.) 



