242 FOWLS. ('HAP. VII. 



12. Silk Fowls. — Feathers silky, with the primary wing and 

 tail-featliers imperfect ; skin and periosteum of bones black ; comb 

 and wattles dark leaden-blue; ear-lappets tinged with blue; legs 

 thin, often furnished with an additional toe. Size rather small. 



13. Sooty Fowls. — An Indian breed, having the peculiar appear- 

 ance of a white bird smeared with soot, with black skin and 

 periosteum. The hens alone are thus characterised. 



From this synopsis we see that the several breeds differ 

 considerably, and they would have been nearly as interesting 

 for us as pigeons, if there had been equally good evidence 

 that all had descended from one parent-species. Most fanciers 

 believe that they are descended from several primitive stocks. 

 The Eev. E. S. Dixon ^ argues strongly on this side of the 

 question ; and one fancier even denounces the opposite con- 

 clusion by asking, " Do we not perceive pervading this spirit, 

 the spirit of the Deist ? " Most naturalists, with the exception 

 of a few, such as Temminck, believe that all the breeds have 

 proceeded from a single species ; but authority on such a point 

 goes for little. Fanciers look to all parts of the world as the 

 possible sources of their unknown stocks ; thus ignoring the 

 laws of geographical distribution. They know well that the 

 several kinds breed truly even in colour. They assert, but, as 

 we shall see, on very weak grounds, that most of the breeds 

 are extremely ancient. They are strongly impressed Avith the 

 great difference between the chief kinds, and they ask with 

 force, can differences in climate, food, or treatment have pro- 

 duced birds so different as the black stately Spanish, the 

 diminutive elegant Bantam, the heavy Cochin with its many 

 peculiarities, and the Polish fowl Avith its great top-knot and 

 protuberant skull? But fanciers, whilst admitting and even 

 overrating the effects of crossing the various breeds, do not 

 sufficiently regard the probability of the occasional birth, 

 during the course of centuries, of birds with abnormal and 

 hereditary peculiarities ; they overlook the effects of correla- 

 tion of growth — of the long-continued use and disuse of parts, 

 and of some direct resiilt from changed food and climate, 

 though on this latter head I have found no sufficient evidence ; 

 and lastly, they all, as far as I know, entirely overlook the all- 

 important subject of unconscious or unmt '•,hodical selection? 



' ' Oruamental and Domestic Poultry,' 1848. 



