JUNGLE FOWL. 43 



have not had the good fortune to taste their flesh, but have no 

 hesitation, from the report of others, in pronouncing it delicate. 

 The Bantams take their name from a country on the N.W. coast 

 of Java, once populous and flourishing, but now miserably deserted, 

 its commerce being transferred to Batavia. 



There are several varieties of the Bantam, in addition to the 

 above the black-breasted red, black, Nankin, white, and booted. 

 The black-breasted red, if denuded of his comb and gills, is a 

 complete miniature representative of our game cock. I had a 

 beauty of this sort, that used to put dogs and fowl to the route, and 

 had the temerity to quarrel with a Peregrine Falcon for his food, 

 but unfortunately suffered decapitation for his presumption. 

 This is the nearest approach to the Bankiva Cock, or wild cock of 

 Java, and so like, in some individuals, as to be difficult to distin- 

 guish them. The black variety has all the pugnacity of its con- 

 geners. The whole of the clean-legged tribe are recommended as 

 good mothers; I have reared all our usual sorts of Pheasants, most 

 successfully, by them. The Nankins are those in use at the great 

 aviary of the Earl of Derby, for hatching out the various sorts 

 of Quail, Partridge, and Pheasants, to which Mr. Thompson has 

 added Cantelo's Incubator, and no one, in Britain, can boast of so 

 much success or experience, as that experienced ornithologist. 

 The white are precisely the same as the others, only varying in 

 colour. James Walter, of Windsor, gives a rather unflattering 

 account of their destroying their eggs ; I have kept them, and 

 never discovered it. 



The Booted, or Feather-legged Bantam, should not escape our 

 notice. They are of all colours ; those with the greatest quantity 

 of feathers on the legs, are usually spotted, red, black, and white. 

 I have seen them with feathers three inches long on their legs, so 

 as to impede their walking. They are becoming scarce, and even 

 promise, if not rescued, to become extinct; the objection, of the 

 fanciers, is, that their boots getting damp, is apt to addle the eggs, 

 put under them for incubation. They, however, have their ad- 

 vantages, as they seldom do an injury, by scratching, and are 

 frequently kept as ornamental pets about a garden. 



THE BANKIVA FOWL, OB WILD COCK OF JAVA, 



And the Black-breasted-red Bantam, are so very like each other 

 that the Bankiva comes next in order ; indeed, there is no doubt 

 of this species being the progenitor of the Bantam, or, perhaps, of 

 most of our domestic fowl. The eyes and throat of this variety 



