150 THE AMEKICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



JAVA BANTAM FOWL. 



last, and fowls treble their weight are often 

 forced to yield. Hence, unless restricted by se- 

 cure inclosures, they are unwelcome neighbors 

 to other poultry ; and consequently by no means 

 so generally kept as, from the beauty of their plu- 

 mage and their bold carriage a very carica- 

 ture of Bantam arrogance would otherwise 

 have happened. 



It is generally admitted that the origin of this 

 Liliputian family must be referred to the islands 

 of the Eastern Archipelago; but whether all 

 our present varieties owe their descent to any 

 one primitive stock may be the subject of spec- 

 ulation, indeed, though hardly at the present 

 day capable of proof. Bantam, however, a town 

 and district of Java, has afforded their present 

 designation ; and the wild Bankiva fowl is the 

 bird to which they are usually considered to 

 owe their origin. 



THE JAVA BANTAM. 



Richardson says that "the original of the 

 Bantam is the Bankiva fowl, a native of Java, 

 several specimens of which are kept by her Ma- 

 jesty at the Home Farm. These are beautiful 

 little creatures, perfectly white in color, and ex- 

 ceedingly small size, and they exhibit some pe- 

 culiar traits of habit and disposition that we 

 can not overlook. Among other strange pro- 

 pensities, the cocks are so fond of sucking the 



eggs laid by the hen, that they will often drive 

 her from the nest in order to obtain them nay, 

 they have even been known to attack her, tear 

 open the ovarium, and devour its shell-less con- 

 tents. To subdue this propensity Her Majesty';, 

 keeper gave the cocks first a hard-boiled egg, 

 and then a marble one to fight with, taking care 

 at the same time to keep them from any access to 

 a real egg. No sooner was this done, than an at- 

 tack on the false egg was commenced, which 

 lasted for a week, till at last, wearied with their 

 fruitless labor, they gradually gave up all notice 

 of them, and with that abandonment, as was 

 anticipated, they ceased from their accustomed 

 destruction of the eggs, and have never been 

 known to attack them since. 



" Another strange propensity was exhibited in 

 a passion for sucking each other's blood ; but 

 this propensity is not peculiar to that breed of 

 fowls ; it is more or less common with all fowls. 

 This passion generally exhibits itself when the 

 birds are moulting, when they had been known 

 to peck each other naked, by pulling out the 

 new feathers as they appeared, and squeezing 

 with their beaks the blood from the bulbs at the 

 base. The intelligence of the keeper found 

 means to overcome this propensity likewise. 

 That person observing that the birds were sub- 

 ject to great heat of the skin, and that its sur- 

 face occasionally became hard and tightened. 



