40 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



Domestication always produces some modifications of 

 structure in animals, and more especially in organs of 

 minor importance, as in the length of the tail and ears, 

 and in the development of various appendages. That 

 the comb of the jago fowl should be large, and often 

 double, is not surprising. Most of our ordinary breeds 

 have a rose crown, yet this development is never found 

 in any wild species. It is the result of domestication, 

 and occurs in a part most liable, as mi^ht be antici- 

 pated, to change. 



THE PHEASANT-MALAY FOWL. 



SYNONYMES. Gullvs giganteus (var. ?), Temminck ; Pheasant-Malay 

 Fowl, Pheasant Fowl. Pheasant Breed, of the English Poulterers. 



This variety may claim the sad pre-eminence of 

 having given occasion to more disputes than any bird 

 of its tribe, always excepting the game cock. It is 

 highly valued by many English farmers, not on account 

 of its intrinsic merits, which are considerable, but 

 because they believe it to be a cross between the 

 pheasant and the common fowl, than which nothing 

 can be more erroneous. The pullets and cockerels are 

 represented as excellent for the table, and when brought 

 to market meet with a ready sale, less because they 

 are really fine birds, than because the seller assures 

 his customers, in perfect sincerity, that they are half- 

 bred pheasants ; and the buyer readily pays his money 

 down, thinking that he has got a nice fowl, and a taste 

 of pheasant into the bargain something like the Paddy 

 who was delighted, at breakfast, on finding that he 

 was " ateing a little hen" when he had only paid for 

 an egg. 



Let it be clearly and distinctly known, then, that 

 the "pheasant breed" of the English poultry fancier 

 is no more a mule between the common hen and the 

 cock pheasant, than the Cochin-China, or ostrich fowl, is 

 ahalf-bred ostrich. Yet. hybrid birds produced between 



