lyO CLASS AVES. 



to a state of domestication as perfect as that of the Guinea 

 Pintado, it must not be attributed to their having a wilder 

 nature, or manners altogether different from that species. 

 They are just as easily reducible to the subjection and use of 

 man, but it does not appear that any efforts have been made 

 for the purpose. Such indeed is his indolence, that when he 

 has long been in possession of certain animals, the first 

 attempts to domesticate which are forgotten in the night of 

 time, he will seldom trouble himself by extending his views 

 to analogous species yet unreclaimed, although he might thus 

 considerably extend the sphere of his enjoyments and his 

 utility. The existence of these birds so far in the interior of 

 the country, long retarded their discovery ; and the Greeks 

 and Romans never possessed these species in a state of domes- 

 tication. It is certain that no ancient author has mentioned 

 them ; while the Meleagrides, inhabiting the north-western 

 line of the African coast, could not escape the attentive 

 researches of those nations, whose labours have descended to 

 us by inheritance, and continue even to the present hour a 

 source of utility and enjoyment to the European world. 



We arrive at length at the great family of the Pheasants, 

 beginning with the subgenus, or, perhaps we should rather 

 say, genus of the Cock (Gallus.) 



Of all the genera of birds, the history of which has been 

 transmitted to us by naturalists and travellers, none has 

 excited so many repeated discussions and debates as this in 

 relation to the primitive stock, or species from which all the 

 races of our domestic cock have been derived. It would be 

 difficult to find a subject on which the opinions even of the 

 scientific and judicious have been so diversified and con- 

 flicting. 



To determine the original country of that species, which 

 should be considered as the type of our village cock, and 



