576 



G A L L I N I D JE. 



sightly appearance ; but the flesh is quite as palatable 

 and wholesome as that of those which have the most 

 gay and brilliant colours. 



THE FORK-TAILED COCK (G.furcata). The chief 

 peculiarity of this species or variety is the form of the 

 tail, which is not folded the one half upon the other, as 

 in most of the species, but flattened and forked at the 

 termination. This is a native of Java, and the Javese 

 give it a name different from any others of the genus. 

 The feathers of the nape and neck are brown at their 

 bases, blue with purple reflections in the middle of 

 their length, and golden green, dotted with black, at 

 the points. The feathers on the back are also brown 

 at the base, but the rest is blackish, with gold 

 coloured reflections, and the extremities margined 

 with brownish yellow ; the body of the feathers on 

 the wing-coverts resembles that on those of the back, 

 but the margins are bright red ; the quills are blackish 

 brown, and the tail feathers golden green ; the crest 

 is entire in the margins, and there is only one wattle 

 under the lower jaw ; these, and the other naked 

 parts of the head, are bright purple ; the feet and 

 irides arc yellow, and the spurs upon the tarsi are 

 very sharp. The length of the male bird, including 

 the tail, is about two feet; that of the female does 

 not exceed fourteen inches. The female has no 

 vestige either of comb or of wattle ; the naked skin 

 round the eye is reddish yellow ; the top of the head 

 and the neck are brownish grey ; the upper parts are 

 blackish golden green, streaked and spotted with grey- 

 ish brown ; the throat white, the under parts brownish 

 ash ; and the quills brown, bordered with reddish. 



Those which have been enumerated are only a few 

 out of the countless numbers that have been figured 

 and described ; but the birds are so prone to break 

 into varieties, that there is no depending upon a 

 single specimen, or even upon several specimens, for 

 the establishment of a species, or even of a variety, ex- 

 cept a merely accidental one, which may break out 

 in one as well as in another. Nor shall we go into 

 any enumeration of the varieties of the domestic 

 breed that are generally described. The habits of 

 the whole genus Gallus, indeed, so much resemble 

 each other, that the account of one may answer for 

 the whole. There is, however, one result of their 

 proneness to sport varieties, which may be worthy of 

 some slight notice, and that is the monstrous forma- 

 tions which they sometimes assume, and which appear 

 to be more singular than those of almost any other 

 race of animals. " In 1802, a Jew exhibited for 

 money, at Posen, in Poland, a hen with a human face, 

 which was hatched in a farm near Wryesnier, and 

 which he had received in payment of a small debt. 

 He declared that another chicken, altogether similar, 

 had been in the same brood, but that it died soon 

 after its birth. The animal which he exhibited, and 

 which I have myself seen, was alive, and in excellent 

 health. It had 'attained its full size, for it was more 

 than a year old. Its body was covered with feathers 

 of different colours, and it resembled other hens in 

 every respect, except the head ; this was of the usual 

 size but denuded of feathers, and covered with a blu- 

 ish skin. The cavities of the eyes were completely 

 like those of human eyes ; they were surmounted by 

 two small arches of down, which formed very regular 

 eyebrows. The upper part of the bill was shorter 

 than usual ; it had but one blunted point, and the 

 nostrils were underneath it, so that, although it was 

 horn, it presented the perfect resemblance of a very 



well-made nose ; below this nose was a very regular 

 mouth with lips ; two rows of very white teeth, close 

 and pointed, and a rounded tongue, completed this 

 most extraordinary litsus naturce. This resemblance to 

 a human countenance had something in it extremely 

 disagreeable, and even horrid ; but was perfect, 

 and had no need of the assistance of imagination to 

 be recognised." The Gazette de Sante, in the year 

 1810, published an account of another phenomenon of 

 this kind. But the resemblance to a human counte- 

 nance was not quite so perfect as in the last, yet was 

 nevertheless very obvious. The writer of the article 

 says, " The place where the bill should be presents a 

 human profile, resembling that of an old woman ; the 

 bill is entirely wanting ; the jaws are shortened, so as 

 to terminate in a point where the nostrils are placed 

 in other hens ; they are covered with flesh, and re- 

 semble lips. The crest, on a face view, forms a kind 

 of nose, so much the more remarkable as the nostrils 

 are placed at the point where this nose terminates, 

 and are united to the jaw. A fleshy excrescence, not 

 seen in other hens, is attached below the under jaw, 

 and represents a sort of chin ; this chin is naked, with 

 the exception of a few hairs, and the naked skin which 

 forms it is prolonged as far as the ears, as in the com- 

 mon hen. The eyes are round and black, and sur- 

 rounded with an iris of a very lively red. Under the 

 eyes the skin is flesh-coloured, mingled with blue, and 

 naked, with the exception of a tuft of hairs, forming a 

 kind of mustachio towards the ears, and concealing 

 the apertures." Many other instances of a similar 

 kind are recorded ; but those which we have quoted 

 must suffice as a specimen, the more so that they are 

 mere curiosities, from which no useful conclusion can 

 be drawn. 



PHASIANUS Pheasant. This is a very interesting 

 genus, most of the members of which are alike re- 

 markable for the elegance of their forms and the 

 beauty of their plumage. They are not by any means 

 so social as common poultry, and none of the species 

 can be said to be in a state of complete domestication. 

 They are nearly allied to common poultry, so much 

 so that when domestic hens become wild in parks, 

 which they often do when they have free range in 

 large ones, they produce hybrids with the common 

 pheasant ; 'nut whether these hybrids can breed with 

 each other, as is the case in crosses with mere varie- 

 ties of the same species, or only back to the pure 

 blood, as is the case with mules between different 

 species, has not been ascertained in a satisfactory 

 manner. In this case, however, as in all similar ones, 

 it is the domesticated female and the male in the wild 

 state that produce the hybrid; and we believe that 

 there is no instance of one between even one of those 

 domestic cocks that become wild in the woods and a 

 female pheasant. Nor is it understood that the hens 

 go astray after other lovers in the wild places until 

 the males of their own race are gone. 



The leading characters of the pheasant genus are : 

 the bill rather short, but thick and stout, naked at the 

 base, and bent down at the tip. The nostrils lateral 

 at the base of the bill ; the ears covered with feathers ; 

 the feet with four toes, three to the front and one be- 

 hind, fitted for walking and for scraping the earth, as 

 is the habit of many of the order ; the tarsi of the 

 male furnished with spurs as in the common cock , 

 the tail lengthened, wedge-shaped, and composed of 

 as many as eighteen feathers, which are in some of 

 the species very much produced. The wings are 



