xlviii INTRODUCTION 



And so to-day we find the magnificent races of wild pheasants, among the frozen 

 steppes of the Gobi Desert, in the flaming rhododendron forests and the sombre deodars 

 of the Himalayas ; on the burning plains of India, and in the steaming jungles of 

 Borneo. They feed, they drink, they roost, pay court, fight, love, make their home, 

 feed and shelter their young, always and ever striving to avoid the scores of hungry 

 maws all about them. They wage the battle of daily life or death to the best of their 

 ability, just as their ancestors have done in the past — throughout the decades, the 

 centuries, the millenniums of which we can never know anything. And now, before 

 the hand of man has brought havoc to their last hiding-place, let us rejoice that we 

 have been able to enter, even thus imperfectly, into the intimacy of their lives on the 

 earth to-day. 



RELATION TO MAN 



Among the nineteen genera of birds which I include in this monograph, there are 

 distributed eighty species, some of which are clearly divisible into subspecific forms, 

 bringing the total up to about one hundred and eight. Here we have one-half of one 

 per cent, of all living birds, and yet it may safely be asserted that, for a number of very 

 different reasons, this small fraction has been, and is, of as much importance to mankind 

 as all the other forms of bird life together. First, from a utilitarian view point, it is 

 not only one genus, Gallus, which leads all birds in value to man, but a single species, 

 the Red Junglefowl {Gallus gallus). As the ancestor of all varieties of domestic poultry 

 this bird is of inestimable importance to mankind. Whether inmates of the kraals of 

 the most degraded savages, or housed in the elaborate concrete buildings of poultry 

 fanciers of civilization, fowls are widespread over the whole world. Their eggs and 

 flesh are among the most valuable and dependable sources of food which nature has 

 provided. Probably the Esquimo is the only branch of the human family which has 

 been unable to profit from this domestic creature. 



I shall only touch upon this interesting subject. The Red Junglefowl is a bird of 

 the greatest significance, standing sharply apart from its fellows by reason of its latent 

 physical and mental possibilities. It is to be compared only with the wild rock dove, the 

 mallard and the grey lag goose. From the Red Junglefowl cock weighing about two 

 pounds, and clad chiefly in red and black, closely resembling the black and red game, 

 has been evolved all of our poultry, from the tiniest of bantams weighing about twenty 

 ounces to the great Brahmas which tip the scales at almost ten pounds. The plumage 

 has been reversed, lengthened, shortened, done away with altogether in certain regions ; 

 the colours and patterns altered almost at will, and the proportions of all the limbs 

 reduced or exaggerated. The tail-coverts of a wild cock are less than a foot in length ; 

 those of the long-tailed Japanese breed may be over twenty feet long. The mental 

 powers have been afl'ected ; pugnacity made dominant, or, on the other hand, the fear of 

 man practically eradicated. From a wild Junglehen which lays at the utmost forty or 

 fifty eggs in the course of her life, we have domestic birds which are veritable &gg 

 machines, a single hen producing as many as three thousand eggs. Yet all these are 

 in no sense species, for if the breeding is neglected and the birds are allowed to cross, 

 the succeeding generations soon revert to the appearance of their feral ancestors. 



The relation of wild pheasants to mankind is a very one-sided affair. The birds 



