178 CLASS AVES. 



different from the brown which tinted the plumage of the 

 other. 



Captain Stedman has observed, that the Indians of the 

 interior of Dutch Guiana rear a very small species of hen, 

 which appears natural to that country. His words are : — 



" As for the poultry, nothing can thrive better ; the 

 common fowls are here as good and plenty as in any 

 country, but smaller, and their eggs differ in shape, being 

 more sharp pointed. A smaller species of the dunghill kind, 

 with rumpled, inverted feathers, seems natural at Guiana, 

 being reared in the inland parts of the country by the 

 Indians or natives." 



Captain Pages says, that among the species of birds with 

 which the woods of the island of Samar, the most eastern of 

 the Philippines, abound, there is a great quantity of wild 

 hens, which differ from ours by their strong and thick -set 

 shape, and their short feet. They are of a grey colour, 

 picked out like the partridge. 



It appears then, probable, that wild cocks are equally 

 found in both continents. There appears no reason what- 

 ever to reject the testunony of these travellers. 



It is remarkable, that the wild hens of the East Indies do 

 not differ among themselves in the colour of the plumage, 

 like our domestic hens. The females too of the primitive 

 species, all resemble each other individually ; this is by no 

 means the case, as is well known, with our domestic hens ; 

 the differences between one individual and another sometimes 

 extend even to characteristic attributes, such as the absence 

 of crest, of barbies, great difference of size, &c. This is a 

 strong fact against the opinion of Buffon, who considered 

 white plumage to be the attribute of the primitive race. That 

 eminent naturalist imagined, that the hens originally white 

 became varied from white to black, and assumed all the inter- 

 mediate colours in succession. 



