PREHISTORIC ORIGIN OF THE COMMON FOWL. 13 
of Gallus bankiva. It is thus difficult to learn its exact status 
as a wild bird, but we have records for every continent except 
Europe, and should be not in the least surprised to hear of feral 
colonies even here. As a rule, however, it becomes best esta- 
blished on subtropical islands. 
Irwin, in his ‘‘ Memoir of Afghanistan” (J. A.S.B. viii. 
p- 1007), says that ‘‘ the Common Fowl is found in its wild state 
in the whole of Turkestan, especially Balkh.’’ Blyth (‘ Ibis,’ 
1867, p. 156) commented that ‘‘surely this is a mistake ’— 
because, of course, he believed that the bird could hardly be wild 
except in what, after the manner of all other ornithologists, he 
held to be its native home. The present writers have strong 
reasons for believing that the Fowl was carried to Mesopotamia 
from Central Asia, and although the evidence is as yet too 
scattered for publication, the opinion may be given in connection 
with Irwin’s interesting note.* 
It may be well to give the present distribution of Gallus 
bankiva from an ornithological point of view (Ogilvie Grant, Cat. 
Birds Brit. Mus. vol. xxii. p. 846) :—‘‘ The jungles of North- 
eastern and parts of Central India, ranging south through the 
Malay Peninsula, east through Siam to Cochin China and 
Hainan ; it also occurs in a wild state in Sumatra, Java, Lom- 
bock, Timor, Celebes, Palawan, and the Philippines.” In 
‘Game Birds,’ a subsequent work by the same author, it is 
suggested that the Fowl may be feral in the last-mentioned 
localities. As we have said, it occurs also, and equally wild, in 
many other parts of the world. We cannot find any records for 
the west coasts of India. Here we get the Grey Jungle Fowl 
(Gallus sonnerati) that is apparently quite wild, and seems never 
to have been domesticated ; it differs very much from G. bankiva. 
The present distribution of the Common Fowl, together with 
our knowledge of Indian commerce with western nations, cer- 
tainly assists in dismissing all ideas of an Indian origin. 
As is usual in such researches as the present, geology gives 
us but little assistance. We find some mention of bones being 
taken from the Terramare beds of Italy (cf. Keller, ‘ Lake 
Dwellings of Europe,’ i. 389), but Prof. Rutimeyer, with greater 
* Darwin, in his ‘ Variation under Domestication,’ i. 249 ff., has much to 
say on the origin of the Fowl. 
