74 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



culties they have to contend with, technically called by 

 them " crying back." Thus it is that half the mongrels 

 that one sees among our domestic fowls are only 

 transition forms, passing back to the type of one or 

 other progenitor. 



The mongrels and barn-door fowls are so numerous 

 and so variously mixed, that it is impossible to give 

 even a catalogue of all the intermediate shades of 

 character among them. I shall, therefore, only notice 

 those which have some pretensions to distinctness of 

 character, and ha.ve been propagated either for orna- 

 ment or profit. Their names and chief characteristics, 

 are as follows : — 



The Jago Fowl, (see vignette,) also erroneously 

 called the " Paduan" and the "great St. Jago fowl," is 

 the offspring of an absurd quotation ffom Marsden's 

 "History of Sumatra," which has run the rounds of 

 most compilations on the domestic fowl. Jago, the 

 native Sumatran or Malay word for a particular breed, 

 has been mistaken for St. Jago, the name of one of the 

 Cape Verd Islands. Marsden was, doubtless, well 

 acquainted with his subject, as will appear from his 

 own words : " There are in Sumatra the domestic hen, 

 (ayam,) some with black bones, and some of the sort 

 we call Freezland or Negro fowls ; hen of the woods 

 {ayarn^ baroogo) ; the jago breed of fowls, which 

 abound in the southern end of Sumatra, and western 

 of Java, are remarkably large ; 1 have seen a cock 

 peck off a common dining-table ; when fatigued, they 

 sit down on the first joint of the leg, and are then 

 ^taller than the common fowls. It is strange if the 

 same country, Bantam, produces likewise the diminu- 

 tive breed that goes by that name." 



This fowl, which was formerly in very high repute, 

 in England, is said to have been as large and as finely- 

 flavored as a turkey ; but now, it is rarely to be met 

 with, if at all. It was probably nothing more than a 

 cross between the Cochin-Chiria, and some other large 

 eastern fowl, which, at present, has nearly or quite 

 " cried back." There are numerous other races or 



