ORDER GALLING. 173 



and the manner in which they erect the neck are peculiar. 

 In those characters they differ from the generic pheasants. 

 The latter appear more elongated, from carrying the neck 

 lower, and extending it forwards, in a position more or less 

 horizontal. 



M. Temminck does not agree with those naturalists who 

 think that the most part of the races of our domestic cocks 

 issued from a single source or type, and that all the diiFer- 

 ences which we observe in the size and peculiar forms of 

 these birds, owe their origin solely to the influence of climate, 

 to domestication, to the capricious modes in which these 

 varieties have been crossed, or, in fine, to simple chance, — a 

 word which, if it have any meaning, means nothing but a 

 cause of which we are wholly ignorant. It certainly appears 

 more reasonable to admit in this genus several sources, several 

 primitive species, the descendants of which form our peculiar 

 races, preserve characters proper to their originals, and among 

 which we shall not fail to find individuals pure and un- 

 degenerated. Many primitive species of the cock, unknown 

 until the present day, and whose descendants we do not 

 possess, afford a very sufficient ground for this opinion. 



There are few facts in Natural History so difficult to 

 determine with precision as to point out the places which 

 the species of our common cock inhabited at first, in a state 

 of freedom and independence. The speculations of many 

 writers are much better calculated to lead us into error, and 

 throw a veil of obscurity over the origin of these birds, than 

 to guide us in our researches. Those who, like Buffon, Son- 

 nerat, and others, believe that our domestic cocks and 

 hens all originated from a single source, will by no means 

 adopt as authentic the indications afforded on this subject by 

 different travellers. Sonnerat rejects the opinion of Dam- 

 pier, on the existence of wild hens at Pulocondor, at Timor, 

 and at St. Jago, saying, that this traveller had not made a 



