24 THE POULTRY-BOOK. 



aspect, the form and distribution of their barbs being the same 

 as our domestic fowls. 



4. In these two birds do we alone find the females provided 

 with a crest and small wattles, characteristics not to be met 

 with in any other wild species. 



To the more diminutive Bankiva cock we are, on the other 

 hand, indebted for the smaller varieties, improperly designated 

 Bantams, and the so-called Turkish fowl. By crossing, pecu- 

 liarities of climate, management, &c., have been produced from 

 these 



1. The cock with small crest and wattles, furnished also 

 with a tuft of feathers, which some writers have supposed to be 

 produced by the juices that ordinarily go to furnish nourishment 

 for the comb taking another form, and developing themselves in 

 the production of the tuft. These approximate most nearly to 

 the original Sumatra stock, and we may recognize their domes- 

 tic representative in the Hamburgh and Polish breeds. 



2. The ordinary village cock, provided with comb and 

 wattles, but no crest or tuft of feathers ; this seems the inter- 

 mediate variety. 



3. Diminutive cocks, ordinarily known as Bantams, with, 

 in some varieties, the tarsi and toes covered with feathers ; but 

 this is not invariably the case. 



I should here describe the two races to which I have stated 

 it as my opinion that we are indebted for our domestic varieties. 



The wild cock, justly termed the * Gallus giganteus,' and 

 called by Marsden the ' St. Jago Fowl,' is frequently so tall 

 as to be able to peck crumbs without difficulty from an ordinary 

 dinner-table. The weight is usually from ten to thirteen or 

 fourteen pounds. The comb of both cock and hen is large, crown 

 shaped, often double, and sometimes, but not invariably, with a 

 tufted crest of feathers, which occurs with the greatest fre- 

 quency, and grows to the largest size, in the hen. The voice is 



