24 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
neither that of the wild bird nor yet the honest crow of the 
barndoor cock—something midway between the two. 
The cockerels and pullets are very hard to distinguish till after - 
the age of three months. The earliest sign of a cockerel was the 
appearance of a red sheen on the feathers of apparent pullets ; all 
such birds in a month or two turned out to be cockerels. The 
colour of the tarsi was generally yellow like the wild fowl, but many 
came of a willow or dark gray colour. On the average the hybrid 
males and females were a shade bigger than the corresponding 
jungle birds. 
The general impression was that these birds (according to Darwin) 
were to be sterile, for Darwin, in closing his general argument, says : 
““The four known species of Gallus when crossed with each other, 
or when crossed (with the exception of Gallus bankiva) with 
domestic fowl, produce infertile hybrids.” 
Does he mean infertile when bred with either parent, or does he 
only mean infertile when crossed inter se ? 
It is the opinion of natives here that the hybrids will certainly 
breed with domestic poultry, and the doubt has never entered their 
minds but that the hybrids will breed inter se. This mere opinion 
is however really valueless, as it has never been demonstrated by 
strictest scientific investigation and experiment. 
We now come to the actual experiments ; they were carried on 
in Hunasgeria, Matale District; Atgalla, Gampola ; and Queens- 
down, Colombo. Mr. Johnson’s runs at Hunasgeria were closed in 
April, 1905, with the departure of this experimenter to England— 
a great loss toinvestigators. His stock was distributed between the 
Atgalla and Queensdown runs. 
No. 1.—Hybrid Cock and Domestic Hen. 
All the hybrid cocks have been mated up at one time or another 
in different rufs with domestic hens and in every single case fertile 
eggs have been produced, and strong healthy chicks hatched out. . 
The hybrid cocks are quite fertile with the domestic parent. 
No. 2.—Hybrid Cock and (J } + D 2) Hen. 
The progeny of the hybrid cock and domestic hen produced in 
No. 1 may be said to be three quarters domestic and one. quarter 
jungle. Such a pullet was mated up with a hybrid cock. She laid 
fertile eggs and produced chickens. This is a distinct step further 
than hybrid and pure domestic in No. 1. The progeny of No. 2. 
experiment may be said to be a 3-jungle and 3 domestic. This 
experiment was repeated with several of the hybrid cockerels. 
