HYBRIDIZATION EXPERIMENTS. 23 
in one run was there any success, namely, in that of Mr. Clement 
Johnson, lately of Hunasgeria. This was an ideal run, of large 
size, with ample shade and cover and with a little stream running 
through it. It was surrounded and covered in by one-inch mesh 
wire netting, which has been proved to be better than netting of 
larger mesh. Mr. Johnson, in the first two years succeeded in 
producing in all some twenty-five or thirty hybrid chicks. He had 
a remarkable jungle cock which he mated up with several (three) 
domestic hens in this run. This cock, as the bird does in its wild 
state, only took up with one single hen and bravely ignored all the 
others. From this one pair came all the hybrids. In the wild state 
the jungle cock is known to tread the domestic hens in outlying 
villages, but this bird was never seen to touch any but his one 
special hen. 
Many of these hybrids died, some at an early age and some when 
older. Some perished by wild cats tearing through the wire netting 
and getting at them. Others perished during the very severe 
monsoon rains. Chicken-pox and gapes also claimed their victims. 
The following is Mr. Johnson’s description of these chicks when 
quite young. These chicks are very small in size and are remarkably 
active. They are all marked alike and very like pure jungle chicks 
in appearance, perhaps a little lighter incolour. “ The little beggars 
are just two weeks old, and they are already out of control ; they 
will fly anywhere ; I found them yesterday all perched up in a tree 
twelve feet from the ground, the disconsolate mother hen below. 
Fortunately, they follow her still or they would disappear entirely. 
At an alarm they scatter in all directions like a flash. With care 
you can approach them quite closely lke ordinary chickens ; any 
untoward movement however and they are off to cover. They are 
the jolliest little chaps you ever saw.” 
It may be stated here that ‘every one of the hybrids bred by Mr. 
Johnson took almost entirely after the jungle parent. The pullets 
turned out like jungle hens, so great the likeness that when seen 
apart these hybrids were invariably mistaken for jungle hens. The 
same might be said of the hybrid cocks. The plumage was very 
similar. None had such orange centres of comb as the wild birds, 
but there was in some an attempt at the yellow patch. This mark 
only appeared in the hybrids after they were full grown, and since 
many died young it is impossible to say what they would have been 
like. The purple patch at the throat of the wild male was 
observed in one of the cocks, while in the others it was merely a dark 
patch. As to the voice—all the pullets had the voice of the wild 
hen. The cock’s call was very strange, hard to describe ; it was 
