Chap. VII. THEIE PAKENTAGE. 237 



domestic breeds, namely, the Game-fowl. It is a significant fact 

 that almost all the naturalists in India, namely Sir W. Elliot 

 Mr. S. N. Ward, Mr. Layard, Mr. J. C. Jerdon, and Mr. Blyth, 25 

 who are familiar with Gr. bankiva, believe that it is the parent of 

 most or all our domestic breeds. But even if it be admitted that 

 G. bankiva is the parent of the Game breed, yet it may be urged 

 that other wild species have been the parents of the other 

 domestic breeds; and that these species still exist, though 

 unknown, in some country, or have become extinct. The ex- 

 tinction, however, of several species of fowls, is an improbable 

 hypothesis, seeing that the four known species have not become 

 extinct in the most anciently and thickly peopled regions of 

 the East. There is, in fact, only one kind of domesticated bird, 

 namely, the Chinese goose or Anser cygnoides, of which the 

 wild parent-form is said to be still unknown, or extinct. For 

 the discovery of new, or the rediscovery of old species of 

 Gallus, we must not look, as fanciers often look, to the whole 

 world. The larger gallinaceous birds, as Mr, Blyth has re- 

 marked, 26 generally have a restricted range : we see this well 

 illustrated in India, where the genus Gallus inhabits the base 

 of the Himalaya, and is succeeded higher up by Gallophasis, 

 and still higher up by Phasianus. Australia, with its islands, 

 is out of the question as the home for unknown species of 

 the genus. It is, also, as improbable that Gallus should inhabit 

 South America 27 as that a humming-bird should be found in 

 the Old World. From the character of the other gallinaceous 



25 Mr. Jerdon, in the < Madras Journ. the period of its discovery ; and more 



ol Lit. and Science.' vol. xxii. p. 2, recently, about 1795, Olivier de Serres 



speaking of G. bankiva, says, " un- speaks of wild fowls in the forests of 



questionably the origin of most of the Guiana; these were probably feral birds 



varieties of our common fowls." For Dr. Daniell tells me, he believes that 



Mr. JBlyth, see his excellent article in fowls have become wild on the west 



Gardener's Chron,' 1851, p. 619 ; and coast of Equatorial Africa; they may, 



m Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' however, not be true fowls, but galli- 



°26 Tn j P ' 388- naceous birds belonging to the genus 



eig Gardener's Chronicle' 1851, p. Phasidus. The old voyager Barbut says 



J T , tnat poultry are not natural to Guinea. 



1 have consulted an eminent autho- Capt. W. Allen ('Narrative of Niger 



nty M r . S c later, on this subject, and Expedition,' 1848, vol ii p. 42) de- 



De thmks that I have not expressed my- SC ribes wild fowls on Ilha dos Eollas, 



self too strongly. I am aware that one an island near St. Thomas's, on the 



ancient author, Acosta, speaks of fowls weat coast of Africa; the natives in- 



M having inhabited S. America at formed him that they had escaped from 



