171" CLASS AYES. • 



particular study of natural history ; as if, remarks Sonnini, 

 it was necessary to have a very profound insight into this 

 science to distinguish a cock or a hen from every other 

 bird. 



The same writer will repose no greater confidence in the 

 testimony of Gmelli Carreri, and Morelle : and he places in 

 the rank of mere conjectures what Sonnini has advanced re- 

 specting the existence of wild cocks in the forests of South 

 America. 



But facts are stronger than theories ; there is no reason 

 why we should not believe in the existence of wild hens in 

 the islands of Pulocondor and Timor, since M. Teraminck 

 received wild cocks, from Sumatra, Java, and Ceylon. These 

 differed, in many respects, not only from those found in the 

 Indies by Sonnerat ; but also from all the races which we 

 cultivate in a state of domestication. 



If then, as is probable, Dampier was not deceived, in 

 speaking of the cocks, which he saw, and that the primitive 

 species which we shall notice after M. Temminck are true 

 cocks (of which no doubt is now entertained), there is no 

 obstacle to the establishment of distinct species in this genus, 

 which, though natives of distant countries, might unite with 

 facility in domestication, and produce in this state some 

 fruitful individuals, which would preserve the characters 

 peculiar to the original stock, and others which would par- 

 take of the characters of many, according to the manner in 

 which the races may have been crossed. 



Our common cock, according to M. Temminck, seems to 

 have originated from the J ago Cock (Gallus Giganteus), a 

 very large wild species, which inhabits the island of Sumatra, 

 and from the species Bankiva, another primitive cock, found 

 in the forests of Java. These two species appear more par- 

 ticularly entitled to this distinction : 1st. in consequence of 

 the resemblance of their females to our domestic hens ; 2nd, 



