THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 15 



takest away their breath they die, and are turned again 

 to their dust." — Dixon. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



In a wild state, the species of the genus gallus are 

 at present restricted to India, Malaya, Sumatra, Java, 

 and perhaps other islands of the neighboring groups, as 

 well as those scattered over the vast Pacific. How far 

 to the west, in remote ages, some of these species may 

 have spread, we know not ; some may have been dis- 

 tributed from India through Persia, even to Mingrelia 

 and Georgia, anciently Colchis, whence the Greeks 

 derived the pheasant, which they found on the banks 

 of the Phasis. 



Oliver de Serres, on his return from a first voyage to 

 Guiana, in 1795, published a note on the subject of 

 the wild cock and hen of that country, which he had 

 every reason to believe were indigenous. " In travel- 

 ling over the gloomy and inextricable forests of Gui- 

 ana," says he, " when the dawn of day began to 

 appear, amidst the immense woods of lofty trees, which 

 fall under the stroke of time only, I had often heard a 

 crowing similar to that of our cocks, but only weaker. 

 The considerable distance which separated me from 

 every inhabited place, could not allow one to think this 

 crowing was produced by domesticated birds ^ and the 

 natives of those parts, who were in company with me, 

 assured me it was the voice of wild cocks. Every one 

 of the colony of Cayenne, who have gone very far up 

 the country, give the same account of the fact. Some 

 have met with a few of these wild fowls, and I have 

 seen one myself. They have • the same forms, the 

 fleshy comb on the head, the gait of our fowls, only 

 they are smaller, being hardly larger than the common 

 pigeon ; their plumage is brown, or rufous." 



In a domestic state, next to the dog, the fowl has 

 been the most constant attendant upon man in his 



