THE COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO 163 
true home of gallinaceous birds, the murghi is a very 
degenerate creature. Natives do not understand the 
art of breeding, as their miserably undersized cattle, 
horses, and donkeys, and their mongrel pigeons, demon- 
strate. Indian poultry, however, are worse than under- 
sized; they exhibit a strong leaning towards pachy- 
dermism—a fatal creed for a table bird. This the 
traveller is able to verify for himself at any adék 
bungalow, for murghi will inevitably appear on the 
table, and the would-be diner, after many ineffectual 
attempts to get his degenerate teeth into the bird 
sacrificed to him, is obliged to console himself for his 
unsatisfied appetite by singing gently :-— 
“ That bird must have crowed when they built 
the Tower of Babel, 
*Twas fed by Cain and Abel, 
And lived in Noah’s stable, 
All the shots that were fired on the field 
of Waterloo 
Couldn’t penetrate or dislocate 
That elongated, armour-plated, 
Double-breasted, iron-chested, 
Cock-a-doodle-doo.” 
All the various breeds of poultry were at one time 
supposed to be descended from the common Indian 
jungle fowl. It is now, however, thought that Cochins 
and Brahmas have possibly arisen from other an- 
cestors. 
The Scrapers are a dimorphic family of birds—the 
sexes differ in appearance. The males are more showy 
and larger than the females. This is supposed to be 
due to sexual selection, that is to say, the preference of 
