36 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. ii. 



their origin to the Jungle Cock, which is a 

 native of the woody regions of the East. 

 Neither of those wild birds appears, however, 

 to have been the source of our tame breeds ; 

 for the cock of the wood, though still an in- 

 habitant of the mountainous forests of the 

 North, and formerly found abundantly in 

 many parts of Great Britain and Ireland, is 

 yet double the weight of our largest fowls, and 

 partakes nothing of their habits or theu' plu- 

 mage ; and the jungle cock, though in form 

 much resembling our tame fowls, has yet never 

 been domesticated in those countries where 

 they breed : which circumstance seems deci- 

 sively opposed to the supposition of his having 

 been the parent of the domestic race. But 

 the Java Cock — which is indigenous to that 

 island, and there partly domesticated — so 

 closely resembles the European breeds, with 

 which they also intermingle, that it is not im- 

 probable he was the main origin of our present 

 stock. 



The inquiry, however, is a question, if not 

 of mere curiosity, yet of secondary importance, 

 possessing little interest to the object before us ; 

 though it is extraordinary that our efforts to 



