THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 39 



The head-quarters of Domestic Fowl at the present day are 

 the islands of Java and Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, a 

 vast extent of but partially explored country, seeing that the 

 area of this last alone is very little less than that of Great 

 Britain. But the prospects opened to natural history by Sir 

 James Brooke's occupation of Borneo, and his gradual pacifi- 

 cation of the enormous Oriental Archipelago by the suppression 

 of piracy, are scarcely appreciable at this early period. Ac- 

 cording to the Quarterly Review (July, 1848), no regions of 

 equal extent on the surface of the globe supply equally rich 

 and varied materials for commerce, ranging from gold and 

 gems of the costliest kind, down to the humblest necessaries 

 of daily life. Throughout the whole twelve thousand islands, 

 at almost every step towards the interior, we have discovered 

 some new article of merchandise, some valuable kind of timber, 

 some odoriferous gum, some species of root, or fruit, or grain, 

 not yet included in the catalogue of human food, some rich 

 mineral or vegetable dye, calculated to improve the beauty of 

 our European fabrics; and yet we have hitherto scarcely 

 stepped beyond the threshold of Borneo, Celebes, Palawan, 

 Magindanao, or New Guinea. All beyond the mere fringe of 

 the coast is unknown; though rivers of great breadth and 

 depth court the entrance of steamers, and promise to reveal 

 new lands at every stroke of the paddle. Here is a Paradise 

 for poultry fanciers; enough to make one entreat to be ad- 

 mitted into the Sarawak service as an attache and volunteer. 

 What delight in tracking some secluded river, or exploring 

 some lovely valley, to behold in the villages Cocks and Hens 

 that would here sell for their weight in silver, if not in gold; 

 or perhaps to stumble on unknown Pea-fowl and Pheasants, a 

 pair of which would draw half Middlesex and Surrey to the 

 Zoological Gardens ! 



The addition of a fifth toe to the foot (the monstra per ex- 

 cessum of Blumenbach) as in the Dorking variety, is more 



