854 



ON THE OEIGIN OF THE DOMESTIC COCK.* 

 By E. Cambridge Phillips, F.L.S., M.B.I.O.U., &c. 



It is universally admitted that the English game fowl has been carefully bred in 

 this country and kept in its purity for many centuries. Introduced here by the 

 Ctesars (a favourite pastime of the Romans being cock-fighting, and copied by 

 them from the Greeks, who most probably obtained their fighting birds originally 

 from the far East), the English game fowl stands alone in its great antiquity, its 

 beauty, and marvellous courage, far above all other breeds of our domestic 

 poultry. 



During the past twenty -five years I have kept at varioustimesall the different 

 varieties of game fowl, and more particularly the pure white bird with yellow 

 legs and bill. T purpose therefore recording the following experiences I have had 

 in crossing White game with Black -red game and other poultry, the results in each 

 case being so surprising, and so very different to my expectations, that I venture 

 to hojje they may be found of some interest to naturalists and ornithologists in 

 throwing some faint light upon the origin of the domestic cock, the subject of this 

 paper. 



As this will probably be read out of England, + it may not be out of place to 

 state shortly the various breeds of game fowl alluded to in this i^aper, with a 

 short description of each. 



First is the " Black-red game," the oldest breed of all, and I think the purest. 

 The cock has the head bright orange in colour ; comb, single, serrated, and red ; 

 eyes, bright red ; face, red ; hackle, bright orange, without any markings ; back, 

 dark rich red ; shoulders and shoulder-coverts, red ; wing-butts, black ; bow, 

 red ; greater and lesser coverts, brilliant lustrous black, forming a distinct bar ; 

 primaries, black ; secondaries, outer web bay, black inner web ; saddle, red ; 

 tail, black ; breast, black ; legs, either willow, blue, olive, or yellow ; one very 

 old breed, however, which is very scarce, called the Derby red, has, as its 

 distinctive mark, white legs, and occasionally a white feather in its tail, which 

 last feature in all other black -reds is considered a sign of the greatest impurity. 



Black-red hen. — Eyes, bright red; neck-hackle, golden, with black stripes; 

 back and shoulder coverts, wing-bow, shoulder, and coverts, partridge-colour ; 

 tail, black and brown ; breast and thighs, salmon-colour ; legs, as in cock. 



" White game. " — Plumage, entirely white; comb, red ; legs, orange-yellow ; 

 eye, red (this applies to both cock and hen). 



"Piles," or "Pied game," are common enough in the British Islands, and 

 were originally obtained by crossing White game with Black-red game. 



* From experiments made in crossing some of the different varieties of pure English game 

 fowls with each other, and also in crossing game fowls with common domestic poultry, 

 t This paper was read before the Ornithological Congress at Vienna, in April, 1884. 



