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GALLUS 
THE JUNGLEFOWL 
Family PHASIANIDAE 
Subfamily PHASIANINAE 
Genus GALLUS 
TuHRouGH the form of the domestic fowl, this group of birds is familiar to more 
people than any other which comes within the scope of this monograph. The breed 
known as the black and red game is very close to the wild Red Junglefowl, which may 
stand as the type of the genus. 
Admitting four species as comprising the genus, we find that they are birds of 
medium size, characterized in the cocks by the following features. The bill is stout, 
fairly short and curved, and the feet are strong and pre-eminently fitted for scratching: 
There is a large, erect, fleshy comb on the top of the head, extending from the base 
of the bill to behind the eyes, with the margin serrated or entire. The sides of the 
face, chin and throat are bare, either with two pairs of wattles situated below the 
ears and on each side of the throat, or a single median wattle down the middle of 
the throat. 
~The tail is composed of seven or eight pairs of feathers. This organ is strongly 
laterally compressed, and slightly graduated except for the central pair of rectrices, 
which are much longer than the others, soft in texture and curved, resembling the 
upper tail-coverts. These are about twice as long as the second pair, and four times 
the length of the outer rectrices. The first primary is considerably shorter than the 
tenth, the fifth being the longest. The tarsi are longer than the middle toe and armed © 
with well-developed spurs. 
The feathers of the rump are long and lanceolate, and the hackles of the neck are 
of the same character, or if truncate have a specialized curve in the vane near the tip, 
and show iridescent colouring. 
All four species will cross with one another, and the hybrids are more or less fertile 
among themselves. The moult is typically Phasianine, that of the tail being from the 
outer rectrices inward. In the females the comb is rudimentary, while the wattles, 
specialized hackles and central rectrices and spurs are lacking. Thus we see that the 
secondary sexual characters are the comb, wattles, hackles, central tail-feathers and 
spurs. ; 
The only one of these characters which may be taken to distinguish the genus 
VOL, II 169 WE 
