478 FAMILY PHASIANID^; FOWLS. 



arching of the tail, and its lateral compression, and by the pre- 

 sence of wattles on the sides of the head. Of all domestic 



FIG. 271 FOOT OF COMMON FOWL. 



Birds, the Common Fowl seems to have been the earliest reclaimed, 

 and is the most extensively spread. It has now branched out 

 into numerous varieties or breeds, many of them differing con- 

 siderably from each other ; thus one is destitute of tail, another 

 has the comb replaced by a tuft of feathers, another has five toes 

 on each foot, and the Bantam variety has the tarsi feathered 

 down to the toes. The Bankiva Jungle Fowl is probably the 

 species whence they were derived, this being found to breed 

 freely with the domesticated races. The period at which it was 

 introduced into our island is completely uncertain ; but we know 

 that it must have been very remote. The ancient Greeks and 

 Romans valued it for its pugnacity ; and frequently engraved its 

 figure on their medals. The taste for Cock-fighting has pre- 

 vailed, not merely among the ancients, but among several 

 modern nations ; the Chinese, the Sumatrans, and the Mussul- 

 man natives of India, are devoted to the sport, if such it may 

 be called ; and in our own country, it has long ranked amongst 

 the amusements of the people. The diffusion of intellectual 

 knowledge, however, combined with the elevation in the popular 



