THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



the head is wholly red ; the eye sharp, quick, 

 nnd watchful ; but of the gorgeousness of the 

 bird's plumage I can give no idea ; it is lustrous 

 with gold and all the prismatic colors a com- 

 bination of a black-breasted red game-cock and 

 the Chinese pheasant. His legs are red, spurs 

 very sharp, crow harsh and short, between a gob- 

 ble and a crow. He is very pugnacious, and 

 Thoroughly master of my Polands ; for although 

 he appears soon tired, he never runs, and after 

 catching his wind for a minute, begins again, 

 and thus fairly tires out his adversary. But 

 when victorious he is by no means intolerant, 

 nnd of a most fatherly disposition toward his 

 chickens. His weight is about three pounds. 

 The hen, his grand -daughter through game 

 mothers, exhibits a close resemblance to the 

 feathering of the duck-wing, but of a sparer and 

 still more delicate figure. She lays abundantly, 

 the eggs being cream-colored far richer than 

 those of the common fowls. The chickens prove 

 delicate, and are reared with difficulty, though 

 tended with most unusual care by their male 

 parent, who is constantly seen brooding them 

 by night as well as day, in cold and unfavora- 

 ble weather. 



" But in addition to these half-breeds between 

 the Jungle fowls and the Game, the different 

 varieties of the latter have themselves been so 

 frequently intermingled, no less from a desire 

 to check degeneracy than from the result of ac- 

 cident, that the task of arrangement, as regards 

 mere feather, presents difficulties of no ordinary 

 character. Thus many are of opinion that we 

 must look to the black-breasted reds as the orig- 

 inal progenitors of the whole race. But this 

 theory is at variance with the permanent char- 

 acter of some strains, where, throughout a long 

 course of years, like has produced like without 

 any material deviation in color or form. 



" But unwilling, as we certainly are, to give 

 our assent to this theory, we should certainly be 

 inclined to side with those who, selecting the 

 black-breasted reds, the duck-wings, and the 

 whites, regard these strains as sufficient to ac- 

 count for the production of all our present sub- 

 varieties. Whether the two former owe their 

 existence respectively to the Jungle fowl and 

 t-'onnerat's, as many are of opinion, we are not 



prepared either to affirm or deny, though to 

 prove the descent satisfactorily we should ask 

 for further evidence than has yet been attaina- 

 ble. The white birds are thought to be a dis- 

 tinct race, and their continued alliance with the 

 two former would explain the cause of many of 

 those combinations of color, among the Piles es- 

 pecially, which are often found as variable as 

 they are undoubtedly beautiful ; and domestica- 

 tion would certainly have sufficient influence on 

 the descendants of each supposed cross to jus- 

 tify our referring the whole game variety to 

 these three ancestral stocks." 



Mr. Dixon's account of this same cross is at 

 variance with the afore-mentioned description : 

 but the latter having been given from continued 

 personal observation, we have no hesitation in 

 thus laying it before our readers. 



We should imagine from these two accounts 

 that the progeny of Sonnerat's cock would longer 

 retain the feathering and characteristic of the 

 wild bird than is found to happen with the off- 

 spring of the Bengal Jungle fowls ; the greater 

 brilliancy and variety of plumage would, of 

 course, tend to this result. 



SONNERAT'S JUNGLE FOWL. 



This splendid bird, of which many specimens 

 have long been in the Menagerie of the Zoo- 

 logical Society, London, is celebrated for its 

 high courage and prowess, and is in great re- 

 quest among the cock-fighters of Hindostan, 

 who consider it more than a match for a largo- 

 bird of the ordinary breed. Its port is erect 

 and stately, and its form is admirable. In size 

 this species is nearly equal to the domestic fowl, 

 but is lighter, weighing but three pounds, and 

 differing both in gait and carriage, as well as 

 in shape, from all other poultry. The comb is 

 only slightly indented ; the wattles are large 

 and double, the hackles (though they scarcely 

 come under this) of the neck, of the wing and 

 tail coverts, dark grayish, with light golden or- 

 ange shafts dilating in the centre and toward 

 the tips into a flat horny plate. In some of 

 the feathers the shaft takes an eliptical or oar- 

 like shape ; in others it puts on the appearance 

 of a long inverted cone, from the centre of the 

 base of which a battle-door-like process arises. 



