12 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
this writer brings evidence to suggest that traffic between Baby- 
lonia and India was in existence between B.c. 700 and B.c. 300. 
It is true he remarks that for all we know to the contrary it 
commenced centuries before this date, and, again, it may not 
have begun until s.c. 300 at the earliest. About the seventh. 
century B.c. we find a marked Oriental influence in Greek art. 
The purely eastern Swatsika design (a sort of cross with the end 
of each arm bent at right angles) now appears on such objects 
as vases, and the figure of the Cock becomes very common. It 
is Just possible that this artistic change marks the date of the 
commencement of intercourse between India and the western 
nations, but the whole question is extremely vague. 
One thing is clear, however: seven thousand years ago the 
Fowl was known in Mesopotamia, yet it did not reach China 
until four thousand seven hundred years after this date, and is 
not known in India until many centuries afterwards. We think 
this huge gap of time disposes at once of the theory of an Indian 
origin for the bird. The actual evidence for the ornithological 
view of to-day that the Fowl originated in India is extraordinarily 
flimsy, and, on analysis, in no way convincing. The main 
point seems to be that it is found in Eastern India in a thoroughly 
wild state, but so far as we can learn, the question of it being 
feral in these places has not been even mentioned by ornitholo- 
gists. It isa matter of common knowledge that perfectly wild 
Gallus bankiva exist in many tropical and subtropical parts of 
the world, where their origin can be traced back to recent intro- 
duction. After a few generations of liberty the bird becomes 
perfectly indistinguishable from the Jungle Fowl of India. Some 
naturalists have laid undue stress on the different voices of these 
feral birds, but it would be unwise to build too much on this, for 
many years ago Captain W. Allen (Narr. Niger Ex. ii. p. 42) 
described how the birds introduced by shipwreck to an island off 
the West Coast of Africa, and become quite wild, had “a ery 
quite different to that of the domestic fowl.” It is most un- 
fortunate that ornithologists have been so unready to include 
feral species in the compilations of faunas; in England we find 
that such birds as the Canada Goose, common and perfectly 
wild in a county, almost or quite ignored because they are not 
indigenous, and we see the same thing in searching the literature 
