GALLUS 

 THE JUNGLEFOWL 



Family PHASIANIDAE 

 Subfamily PHASIANINAE 



Genus GALLUS 



Through the form of the domestic fowl, this group of birds is familiar to more 

 people than any other which comes within the scope of this monograph. The breed 

 known as the black and red game is very close to the wild Red Junglefowl, which may 

 stand as the type of the genus. 



Admitting four species as comprising the genus, we find that they are birds of 

 medium size, characterized in the cocks by the following features. The bill is stout, 

 fairly short and curved, and the feet are strong and pre-eminently fitted for scratching- 

 There is a large, erect, fleshy comb on the top of the head, extending from the base 

 of the bill to behind the eyes, with the margin serrated or entire. The sides of the 

 face, chin and throat are bare, either with two pairs of wattles situated below the 

 ears and on each side of the throat, or a single median wattle down the middle of 

 the throat. 



The tail is composed of seven or eight pairs of feathers. This organ is strongly 

 laterally compressed, and slightly graduated except for the central pair of rectrices, 

 which are much longer than the others, soft in texture and curved, resembling the 

 upper tail-coverts. These are about twice as long as the second pair, and four times 

 the length of the outer rectrices. The first primary is considerably shorter than the 

 tenth, the fifth being the longest. The tarsi are longer than the middle toe and armed 

 with well-developed spurs. 



The feathers of the rump are long and lanceolate, and the hackles of the neck are 

 of the same character, or if truncate have a specialized curve in the vane near the tip, 

 and show iridescent colouring. 



All four, species will cross with one another, and the hybrids are more or less fertile 

 among themselves. The moult is typically Phasianine, that of the tail being from the 

 outer rectrices inward. In the females the comb is rudimentary, while the wattles, 

 specialized hackles and central rectrices and spurs are lacking. Thus we see that the 

 secondary sexual characters are the comb, wattles, hackles, central tail-feathers and 

 spurs. 



The only one of these characters which may be taken to distinguish the eenus 

 VOL. II 169 ^ f 



