to THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK. 



hens were a shade redder on the neck and breast than th^ Indian hens. The 

 Malayan males generally had a red ear-lappet, instead of a white one as in India; 

 but Mr. Blyth has seen one Indian specimen without the white ear-lappet. The 

 legs are leaden blue in the Indian, whereas they show some tendency to be yel- 

 lowish in the Malayan and Javan specimens. In the former Mr. Blyth finds the 

 tarsus remarkably variable in length. According to Temminok the Timor spec- 

 imens differ as a local race from that of Java. These several wild varities have 

 not as yet been ranked as distinct species ; if they should, as is not unlikely, 

 be hereafter thus ranked, the circumstance would be quite immaterial as far as 

 the parentage and differences of our domestic breeds' are concerned. The 

 wild 6. hanklva agrees most closely with the black-breasted red Game breed, in 

 coloringand in all other respects, except in being smaller, and in the tail being 

 carried more horizontally. But the manner in which the tail is carried is highly 

 variable in many of onr breeds, for the tail slopes much in the Malays, is erect 

 in the Games and some other breeds, and is more than erect in the Dorkings, 

 Bantams, etc. There is one other difference ; namely, that in Q. bankiva, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Blyth, the neck-hackles when first moulted are replaced during two 

 or three months, not by other heckles, as with our domestic poultry, but by short, 

 blackish feathers. Mr. Brent, however, has remarked that these black feathers 

 remain in the wild bird after the development of the lower hackles, and appear 

 in the domestic bird at the same time with them ; so that the only difference is 

 that the lower hackles are replaced more slowly in the wild bird than in the 

 tame bird ; but as confinement is known sometimes to affect the masculine 

 plnmage, this slight difference cannot be considered of any importance. It is a 

 significant fact that the voice of both the male and female G. bankiva, closely 

 resembles, as Mr. Blyth and others have noted, the voice of both sexes of the 

 common domestic fowl, but the last note of the crow of the wild bird is rather 

 less prolonged. «***»»»» 



"From the eltremely close resemblance in color, general structure, and espe. 

 oially in voice, between GaMus bankiva and the Game fowl ; from their fertility, as 

 far as this has been ascertained, when crossed; from the possibility of the wild 

 species being tamed, and from its varying in the wild state, we may confidently 

 look at it as the parent of the most typical of all the domestic breeds ; namely, the 

 Game fowl. It is a significant fact that almost all the naturalists ifa India who 

 are familiar with G. bamMva, believe that it is the parent of most or all of our 

 domestic breeds. But even if it be admitted that G. bamkiva is the parent of the 

 Game breed, yet it may be urged that other wild species have been the parents of 

 the other domestic breeds, and that these species still exist, though unknown 

 in some countries, or havfe become extinct. The extinction, however, of several 

 species of fowls is an improbable hypothesis, seeing that the four known species 

 have not become extinct in the most anciently and thickly populated regions of 

 the East There is, in fact, only one kind of domesticated bird; namely the 

 Chines* goose, or Anser eygnoides, of which the wild parent form is said to be 

 still unknown, or extinct. For the discovery of new, or Uie re-discovery of old 

 species of Gallus, we mupt not look, as fanciers often look, to the whole world. 

 The larger gaUinaceous birds, as Mr. Blyth has remarked, generally have a re- 

 stricted range; we see this well illustrated in India, where the genus Gallus 



