Chaj\ vti. their parentage. 247 



Tlie last species to be mentioned, namely, Oallus bankiva, has a 



much wider geographical range than the three previous species ; it 



iriiabits Northern India as far west as Sinde, and ascends the 



Hmalaya to a height of 4000 ft.; it inhabits Burmah, the Malay 



pejinsula, the Indo-Chinese countries, the Philippine Islands, and 



tht Malayan archipelago as far eastward as Timor. This species 



va-ies considerably in the wild state. Mr. Blyth informs me that 



tin specimens, both male and female, brought from near the 



Hinalaya, are rather paler coloured than those from other parts of 



Inlia ; whilst those from the Malay peninsula and Java are brighter 



cooured than the Indian birds. I have seen specimens from these 



cointries, and the difference of tint in the hackles was conspicuous. 



Tie Malayan hens were a shade redder on the breast and neck than 



tls Indian hens. The Malayan males generally had a red ear-lappet, 



irstead of a white one as in India ; but Mr. Blyth has seen one 



Iidian specimen without the white ear-lappet. The legs are leaden 



bue in the Indian, whereas they show some tendency to be yellowish 



ii the Malayan and Javan specimens. In the former Mr. Blyth 



Inds the tarsus remarkably variable in length. According tc 



Temminck '" the Timor specimens differ as a local race from that of 



Java. These several wild varieties have not as yet been ranked as 



distinct species ; if they should, as is not unlikely, be hereafter thus 



ranked, the circumstance would be quite immaterial as far as the 



parentage and differences of our domestic breeds are concerned. 



The wild Cr. hankiva agrees most closely with the black-breasted 



red Game-breed, in colouring and in all other respects, except in 



being smaller, and in the tail being carried more horizontally. But 



the manner in which the tail is carried is highly variable in many 



of our breeds, for, as Mr. Brent informs me, the tail slopes much in 



the Malays, is erect in the Games and some other breeds, and is 



more than erect in Dorkings, Bantams, &c. There is one other 



difference namely, that in G. hankiva, according to Mr. Blyth, the 



neck-hackles when iirst moulted are replaced during two or three 



months not by other hackles, as with our domestic poultry, but by 



short blackish feathers. 2' Mr. Brent, however, has remarked that 



these black feathers remain in the wild bird after the develoj^ment 



of the lower hackles, and appear in the domestic bird at the same 



time with them : so that the only difference is that the lower hackles 



are replaced more slowly in the wild than in the tame bird ; but as 



confinement is known sometimes to affect the masculine plumage, 



this slight difference cannot be considered of any impcn-tance. It is 



a significant fact that the voice of both the male and female (;. 



hankiva closely resembles, as Mr. Blyth and others have noted, the 



voice of both sexes of the common domestic fowl ; but the last note 



of the crow of the wild bird is rather less prolonged. Captain 



*» 'Coup-d'oeil general sur I'Inde ^i jjj.. Blyth, in ' Annals and Mag 



Archipelagique,' torn. iii. (1849), p. of Nat. Hist.,' 2nd ser., vol. i. (1848), 



177 ; Are also Mr. Blyth in ' Indian p. 455. 

 Sporting Review,' vol. ii. p. 5,^ 1856. 



