494 The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



described his management for us ; the great point, as will be seen, being to ensure an appearaucc of 

 nature as far as possible. 



" Where I kept my first pair to breed from," he says, " was in a new pen, twelve feet wide and 

 thirty-six feet long, fenced in eighteen feet high. It had a roosting-house twelve feet square open 

 to the front, and two dwarfed oak trees about fifteen feet high, so placed that they could fly from 

 one to the other, and close to the woods. Here (in the two trees) they roosted, summer and 

 winter ; never in any sort of weather would they roost inside of the house made for them. Every 

 week they had a fresh piece a yard square of heath and turf let into the ground, with plenty of 

 lettuces and 2,ny fi-uit that was in season, such as a few strawberries, currants, bramble or black- 

 berries, or in fact any soft fruit I could get, taking care not to overdo the thing. They were fed on 

 good soft food, with a little wheat and sometimes rice boiled ; and had a heap of cinder-ashes and 

 old lime rubbish in a dry corner, with a nice supply of road washings, which are the fine, small, ^ — 

 bright stones you will find at the bottom of the hills on turnpike roads after heavy rains. Of coupe 

 they must be kept from much intrusion to do well. The young only require to be attended/to as 

 carefully as any other fancy poultry ; keeping the hen cooped the same as for pheasant^ They 

 grow up as tame as reared pheasants, but as age increases will ramble off into the cover, always 

 however coming back to feed at call. The half-breeds take more after Game Bantams in disposi- 

 tion, but still show more shyness. I forgot to say I found the pure breeds, while in confinement, 

 were very fond of small live mice, of which I always took care to supply them with a few weekly." 



THE JAVANESE JUNGLE FOWL, known to naturalists as Callus varius, or Callus . 

 furcatus, or as the " Forked-tailed Cock," which is simply the last name translated, is in some 

 respects a most peculiar and strongly-marked bird. Verj' few have reached Europe, but there are, 

 or at least were very recently, fine specimens in the Zoological Gardens at Antwerp. There used 

 to be some also in the gardens at Regent's Park, London, from the male of which some hybrids 

 were raised. Such hybrids are suspected to have received the names of Callus ALneiis and Callus 

 Temmiiickii, which are either cross-bred from the Javah Fowl, or evidently only sub-varieties of it ; 

 though some naturalists have supposed the Callus yEneus to be the original type, and Callus varius 

 the derived. 



The comb of the cock, which is small and unscrrated, is bluish at tlie base, changing to violet 

 or purple at the edge. The head is rather long and narrow, the face being red, and the eye very 

 prominent. Under the throat, in place of the usual double wattles, is a single wattle hanging from 

 . the median line of the lower mandible. This wattle is yellow at the back of the throat, changing 

 into a rich dark crimson at the anterior edge. The feathers of the neck are scarcely like hackles, 

 but are blunt and rounded on the lower edge, and being of a deep metallic green bordered with 

 black, give much the eftect of scales. These "scaly" feathers reach, as in the ordinary hackles of 

 the common cock, to the middle of thfe;back. The saddle-feathers are the same metallic green in 

 the centre, but are bordered with yellow ; and the wing-bow feathers, or shoulder-coverts, are the 

 same green with golden-green edges. The secondaries are a deep orange-red on the lower edges, 

 which is all that appears when the wing is closed, while the primaries are nearly black ; the under 

 parts also being black or very dark grey, with a bluish shade, or what Game-breeders call a blue-dun 

 colour. The tail is glossy green-black, the two centre feathers branching open, from which one of 

 the names is derived. The hen is smaller, has no comb or wattles, and is of a generally greyish 

 colour underneath, with greenish hackles, and grey with a more brownish tinge over the upper parts 

 of the body and tail. The colour of the legs seems to vary, the Antwerp specimens being of a 

 flesh-colour, while most Eastern sportsmen describe the colour as blue or bluish grey. 



