20 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
with either parent stock ; and above all the power of the progeny 
to breed amongst themselves. This last is supposed to be the 
severest test of unity of species. 
Darwin concludes: his investigation by stating that the Gallus 
bankiva, the great jungle fowl of India, is the parent stock. This 
view is generally accepted as correct. He then gives reasons why 
the other three probably are not parent stocks. It is these con- 
clusions that are received with much hesitation. In the present 
article we are concerned only with the Gallus Stanleyi. 
In ‘‘ Animals and Plants under Domestication,’’ Vol. I., p. 246, 
Darwin writes :— 
‘Ceylon possesses a fowl peculiar to the Island, viz., Gallus 
Stanleyit ; the species approaches so closely (except in colouring 
of the comb) to the domestic fowl that Messrs. Layard and Kelaart 
would have considered it, as they inform me, as one of the parent 
stocks had it not been for its singular voice. 
‘« This bird, like the last (Gallus Sonnerati), crosses readily with 
tame hens, and even visits solitary farms and ravishes them. Two 
hybrids, a male and a female, thus produced were found by 
Mr. Mitford to be quite sterile ; both inherited the peculiar voice of 
the Gallus Stanley. This species may in all probability be rejected 
as one of the primitive stocks of the domestic fowl.” 
In appearance the bird does very closely indeed approach the 
domestic fowl. The three points urged against its being a parent 
stock are— 
(1) Unique comb ; a fairly large single comb with an orange 
centre, this latter being found in no domestic fowls. 
(2) Its voice, which is not like an ordinary cock crow, but a* 
curious call popularly said to be like the words “‘ George 
Joyce.” 
(3) The sterility of its hybrids. 
Let it be well noted that Darwin makes no positive statement ; 
he does not dogmatize. He merely says: “This species may then 
in all probability be rejected,” &c. He was open to conviction. 
Discussing these points, the late Lewis Wright, one of the greatest 
authorities in poultry matters, writes in the 1893 edition of his 
colossal standard work, “‘ The Book of Poultry,” p. 504 :-— 
‘Regarding the Ceylon jungle fowl, or Gallus Stanleyiz, there is 
less evidence on either side. The fact that hybrids between it and 
the common fowl are so common in Ceylon as scarcely to excite 
remark, should make us cautious in concluding, on the sole evidence 
