DOMESTIC FOWL 61 



tenanced virtually everywhere on the Continent 

 of Europe with the exception of Spain. It meets 

 with disfavor in the United States, but all Latin 

 American countries hold the cock-fight in national 

 approbation. 



Early Domestidation 



Although there is little economic value in the 

 game-cock, the bird is unique because it repre- 

 sents in a domesticated condition the closest ap- 

 proach we have to the red jungle fowl, the wild 

 progenitor of the common fowl. Four distinct 

 species of these jungle-fowl still exists, all in- 

 habiting the Indo-Malayan region of Asia or the 

 adjacent islands. Three of them do not thrive 

 particularly well in captivity, but the fourth, the 

 so-called red ispecies, easily breaks away from 

 a feral state. This species is the forefather of 

 all our domestic fowl. 



According to the old Chinese encyclopedia pub- 

 lished in 1596, the first of these birds was intro- 

 duced from the West into China about 1400 b. c. 

 This is the earliest authentic mention of the do- 

 mesticated fowl. No remains have been found 

 in the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings, nor is there 

 mention of it in the Old Testament. It was un- 

 known to the old Egyptians and to Homeric 

 Greece. In India the people first began to breed 



