250 FOWLS. Chap. VII. 



humming-bird should be found in the Old World. From the 

 character of the other gallinaceous birds of Africa, it is not 

 probable that Gallus is an African genus. We need not 

 look to the western parts of Asia, for Messrs. Blyth and 

 Crawfurd, who have attended to this subject, doubt whether 

 Gallus ever existed in a wild state even as far west as Persia. 

 Although the earliest Greek writers speak of the fowl as a 

 Persian bird, this probably merely indicates its line of 

 importation. For the discovery of unknown sjiecies we must 

 look to India, to the Indo-Chinese countries, and to the 

 northern parts of the Malay Archipelago. The southern 

 portion of China is the most likely country ; but as Mr. 

 Blyth informs me, skins have been exported from China 

 during a long period, and living birds are largely kept there 

 in aviaries, so that any native species of Gallus would pro- 

 bably have become known. Mr. Birch, of the British 

 Museum, has translated for me passages from a Chinese 

 Encyclopaedia published in 1609, but compiled from more 

 ancient documents, in which it is said that fowls are 

 creatures of the West, and were introduced into the East 

 (i.e. China) in a dynasty 1400 B.C. Whatever may be thought 

 of so ancient a date, we see that the Indo-Chinese and Indian 

 regions were formerly considered by the Chinese as the source 

 of the domestic fowl. From these several considerations we 

 must look to the present metropolis of the genus, namely, to 

 the south-eastern parts of Asia, for the discovery of species 

 which were formerly domesticated, but are now unknown in 

 the wild state ; and the most experienced ornithologists do 

 not consider it probable that such species will be discovered. 

 In considering whether the domestic breeds are descended 

 from one species, namely, G. bankiva, or from several, we must 

 not quite overlook, though we must not exaggerate, the im- 

 portance of the test of fertility. Most of our domestic breeds 

 have been so often crossed, and their mongrels so largely 

 kept, that it is almost certain, if any degree of infertility 

 had existed between them, it would have been detected. On 

 the other hand, the four known species of Gallus when 



and lastly, it is asserted that they but whether this is correct I Icnoi? 

 have becoiCJ feral in New Zealand, not. 



