818 Note to the Catalogue of the Birds [Aug. 



crest, and the quantity of white bordering the rump -feathers of Eu. 

 albocristatus much reduced. The male Eu. melanotus has a thin black 

 crest, and no trace of white on the rump, and its tail is also longer 

 than in the others ; but in other respects it is quite similar to Eu. albo- 

 cristatus of the N. W. ; and the females of all are alike, except that 

 the hen Eu. lineatus has the pectoral feathers white-centred to a greater 

 or less extent. 



On the other hand, it may be remarked that a pair of hybrids raised 

 from the male G alius Sonneratii and a picked common hen engen- 

 dered very freely, and many eggs were laid ; but none of these would 

 hatch, although other eggs placed with them in the same nest produced 

 chicken, as usual ; numerous other eggs were also obtained from the 

 female hybrid trodden by a common domestic cock, and from common 

 hens trodden by the male hybrid ; but all attempts to hatch these were 

 equally unsuccessful.* "We now expect to raise hybrids from the male 

 Gallus Stanleyi (vel Lafayettei) and a prolific half-bred jungle-hen 

 from Arakan, apparently the produce of a domestic hen by a wild G. 

 ferrugineus (v. bankivus) ; and hope to be able to follow up the expe- 

 riment as with G. Sonneratii. That all our diversified domestic fowls 

 are derived from G. ferrugineus is indicated by the crow of any domestic 

 cock and by all the language of the poultry-yard, which are essentially 

 similar to the notes of the wild bird ; whereas the voice, whether of G. 

 Sonneratii or of G. Stanleyi, in every note they utter, is exceedingly 

 dissimilar from the voice of G. ferrugineus wild or tame, and equally 

 unlike one from the other. Yet the cocks recognise and acknowledge 

 each other's widely different crows, and fight as eagerly together as with 

 their own kind.f 



* Yet we have seen ^ bred fowls (i. e. \ Pheasant) in the London Zoological 

 Gardens; an intermixture in this case of different genera (as now recognised), 

 instead of different species of the same genus. 



f The crow of G. Stanleyi is a sharp dissyllabic sound, in which Cinghalese 

 sportsmen fancy they hear the words ' John Joyce,' pronounced very sharply and 

 in a peculiar key. (Layard.) That of G. Sonneratii may be imitated, but scarcely 

 expressed in writing, — a sort of char ar - char dc ha. 



Here it may be remarked that a friend lately succeeded in obtaining a hybrid 

 chick between the male Pavo muticus and female P. cristatus ; but unfortunately 

 ti did not live many days, and it is now mounted in the Society's Museum. 



