238 PHEASANTS 



In the capercailzie the contrast is enhanced by such a 

 disproportion in size that the cock might be mistaken 

 for a separate species by one not acquainted with the 

 birds. The average weight of three cock capercailzie 

 as recorded in the Royal Scottish Museum is 8| lb., the 

 extreme length being 3 feet 4 inches, while two hens 

 weighed respectively 4 lb. and 4 lb., with a length of 

 2 feet 2 inches. Our domestic fowls have undergone 

 infinite manipulation at the hands of unnumbered 

 generations of men of many races; but neither the 

 industry of poultry breeders nor the vagaries of the 

 show pens have prevailed to impair the majesty of 

 Chanticleer or assimilate his plumage to the modest 

 garb of his harem. It seems, on the contrary, that the 

 tendency has been to make it more conspicuous, for 

 the male red jungle fowl (Gallus ferrugineus), the 

 species in which all the domestic strains are believed to 

 have their origin, does not flaunt his tail feathers in 

 the defiant manner of the barnyard bird, but carries 

 them drooping in obsequious fashion. 



Agreeable emotion thrilled the members of the 

 British Ornithological Club when, at one of their 

 periodical dinners a few years ago, a traveller exhibited 

 a single tail feather of a pheasant picked up in the 

 island of Formosa. The bird itself had not been seen 

 by any European. The feather evidently belonged to 

 a cock bird ; it was long and slender, jetty black, barred 

 with narrow white lines. Mr. Walter (now Lord) 

 Rothschild forthwith despatched an expedition to 

 Formosa, whereof the result was shown at a subsequent 

 dinner of the B.O.U. in the shape of skins of both sexes 



