

20 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



chestnut, with the webs of the feathers disunited ; 

 greater coverts, steel-blue ; secondaries, also steel-blue, 

 with a border of chestnut. The quills are brownish- 

 black, edged with pale reddish-yellow. Tail black, 

 glossed with changeable green and blue. Breast and 

 under parts black. Contour very graceful, and every 

 action animated and lively. 



"With regard to the Bankiva jungle fowl, it cannot 

 be doubted that it is the main source, if not the only 

 one, of our Bantam breeds. The very term "Bantam" 

 is sufficient to establish the fact. Bantam is the name 

 of a town and district in the northwest of Java, belong- 

 ing at present to the Dutch. The town is now fallen 

 into decay, but was formerly a place of great import- 

 ance, and still boasts of a governor, whose residence is 

 at Sirang, or Ceram, a thriving town some miles 

 inland. The Portuguese, who visited Java, in 1511, 

 carried on a great trade from Bantam with Hindoostan 

 and China, chiefly in pepper. In 1595, the Dutch 

 established themselves at Bantam, and in 1602, the 

 English erected a factory in the same place, which was 

 the first possession of the English in the East Indies. 

 Of the subsequent predominance of the power of the 

 Dutch, who built the town of Batavia, not far distant 

 from Bantam, this is not the place to speak. From 

 this statement, however, it is evident that the beauti- 

 ful Bankiva jungle fowls, reclaimed by the natives, 

 and sold to the British, at Bantam, while their factory 

 was established there, were imported into England 

 under the very natural appellation of Bantam fowls. 

 Their elegance and diminutive size rendered them 

 favorites, and in due time the name, belonging exclu- 

 sively to these birds, came to be conferred on all small 

 or dwarf fowls indiscriminately, whether of this pure 

 breed or otherwise. The domestic Bantam stock, as 

 every one knows, breeds freely with ordinary fowls, 

 the mixed offspring being intermediate in size between 

 their parents ; and that the Bankiva jungle fowl will 

 breed with our domestic Bantam race, and with other 



