2So Tim Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



and the bird together probably came to us from Persia ; the medium of introduction being most 

 Hkely the Phoenician traders who visited the island for tin. To this theory we may frankly admit 

 there are serious objections, the chief of which is the fact that no absolutely distinct and certain 

 reference to cock-fighting can be found in English history (so far as we are aware) before the reign 

 of Henry II.; but as it is really impossible to decide the matter definitely, further argument may 

 well be spared. 



When we leave Britain, the ancestry of the Game fowl becomes still more uncertain. The 

 ancient Lydians, as well as the Persians, fought cocks, and probably from them the Greeks and 

 Romans borrowed the diversion. Bearing in mind the close connection in some other matters 

 between the Indo-Persian nations, we are not surprised to find that both in the present Indian 

 Empire, and throughout the whole adjacent archipelago, the people are not only still passionately 

 attached to cock-fighting, but that their traditions carry it back to the remotest antiquity. Hence 

 many naturalists have attributed to the present Galliis Bankiva, or wild jungle-fowl of India, both 

 the origin of the Game fowl and of all other domesticated breeds, for which theory there are 

 strong reasons besides the general resemblance of that bird to the present Black-breasted Red Game; 

 but we confess that, although at one time much inclined to adopt this view, and familiar with the 

 arguments by which it is supported, greater acquaintance with the actual facts of poultry-breeding, 

 and with the accounts of trustworthy travellers in India, make us less and less satisfied 

 with it as affording adequate explanations of cither, even after the amplest weight has been given 

 to every detail of the Darwinian argument. It is a singular fact that Mr. Darwin himself writes 

 with much greater modesty on these subjects than some of his more ignorant followers ; certain 

 of whom have professed to settle the matter in an ex cathedra manner which, in either practical 

 poultry-fanciers or really intelligent naturalists, will simply e.xcite the ridicule it deserves, which- 

 ever way the balance of actual argument (with which such writers as we allude to do not deal) 

 may ultimately incline. There is much to be said for this view, no doubt ; and Mr. Darwin has 

 ably said it ; but some of the arguments on the other side do not seem known to him. One of 

 these is the fact that, while black is a conspicuous element in the colour of the Callus Bankiva, the 

 direction of that reversion on which he lays so great stress seems to be towards a red, rusty, or brown 

 colour alone, with a distinct tendency to eliminate black altogether except in the tail. This fact 

 is known to all who have much practical acquaintance with poultry-breeding and its followers, and, 

 so far as it goes, it would point rather to a bird of the ginger-red type than the black-red, as the 

 original of most races. Again, while such writers as we have referred to have sneered at the old 

 Callus gigafitens of Temminck, many credible witnesses have of late, by repeated accounts, 

 left very considerable doubt whether some bird at least intermediate in size between the Callus 

 Bankiva and the gigantic races does not, after all, inhabit the jungles of Eastern Asia ; while the 

 resemblance of the ordinary fighting-cock of India to a small Malay, and the singular persist- 

 ency of this type of bird throughout India and the Malay peninsula, notwithstanding the utter 

 absence of any attempt to breed it "to points " as we do, with the extraordinary hardness of its 

 plumage, so closely approaching the Game, may raise further doubts on the subject, which no 

 mere ipse dixit is sufficient to decide. As wc have observed in the last chapter, further investiga- 

 tion is required, and more knowledge of facts must be obtained, before the question of the origin 

 of the domestic fowl is even ripe for settlement ; and we have only mentioned it again here, because, 

 as the most typical of all breeds, the royal Game has the most interest of any in its decision. 

 To the practical consideration of this breed wc must now proceed. 



That some change has taken place in the general style of Game fowls owing to the decline 

 of cock-fighting, and the growth instead thereof of show competition, is unquestionable; but these 



