236 



FOWLS. 



Chap. VII. 



c^ 1 '- 



hackles, as with our domestic poultry, but by short blackish feathers. 21 

 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 than in the 

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

 culine plumage, this slight difference cannot be considered of any import- 

 ance. 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. Captain Hutton, well known for 

 his researches into the natural history of India, informs me that he has 

 seen several crossed fowls from the wild species and the Chinese bantam • 

 these crossed fowls bred freely with bantams, but unfortunately were not 

 crossed inter se. Captain Hutton reared chickens from the eggs of the 

 Gallus bankiva ; and these, though at first very wild, afterwards became so 

 tame that they would crowd round his feet. He did not succeed in rearing 

 them to maturity ; but, as he remarks, " no wild gallinaceous bird thrives 

 well at first on hard grain." Mr. Blyth also found much difficulty in 

 keeping G. bankiva in confinement. In the Philippine Islands, however, 

 the natives must succeed better, as they keep wild cocks to fight with 

 their domestic game-birds. 22 Sir Walter Elliot informs me that the hen of 

 a native domestic breed of Pegu is undistinguishable from the hen of the 

 wild G. bankiva ; and the natives constantly catch wild cocks by taking 

 tame cocks to fight with them in the woods. 23 Mr. Crawfurd remarks 

 that from etymology it might be argued that the fowl was first domesti- 

 cated by the Malays and Javanese. 24 It is also a curious fact, of which 

 I have been assured by Mr. Blyth, that wild specimens of the Gallus 

 bankiva, brought from the countries east of the Bay of Bengal, are far 

 more easily tamed than those of India ; nor is this an unparalleled fact, for, 

 as Humboldt long ago remarked, the same species sometimes evinces a more 

 tameable disposition in one country than in another. If we suppose that 

 the G. bankiva was first tamed in Malaya and afterwards imported into 

 India, we can understand an observation made to me by Mr. Blyth, that 

 the domestic fowls of India do not resemble the wild G. bankiva more 

 closely than do those of Europe. 



From the extremely close resemblance in colour, general 

 structure, and especially in voice, between Gallus bankiva and 

 the Game fowl ; from their fertility, as far as this has been ascer- 

 tained, 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 



21 Mr. Blyth, in 'Annals and Mag. ™ In Burmah, as I hear from Mr. 



of Nat. Hist.,' 2nd ser., vol. i. (1848), Blyth, the wild and tame poultry con- 



P- 455. stantly cross together, and irregular 



23 Crawfurd, ' Desc. Diet, of Indian transitional forms may be seen. 



Islands,' 1856, p. 112. 24 ia em . p# 118i 



