GALLUS SONNERATI. 41 



Spec. Char. Comb toothed ; throat wattled beneath ; 

 feathers of the neck elongated, spotted with white, 

 black, and fulvous, with membranaceous tips ; throat, 

 breast, abdomen, and back, griscous lincated with 

 white ; wing-coverts -reddish-chesnut ; the quill and 

 tail feathers deep black. 



Phasianus Gallus; Sysl.Nat. Gmelin, 737. Phasianus Gallus, ear a.; Lath.Ind. 

 Omith. 625, I. Wild Cock ; Lath. Gen. Si/st. 8, 2, 623, 1. Phasianus Indicus ; 

 Leach, Zool. Misc. ii. t. 61 ; Shaw, Zool. xi. 1. 18. CoqSauvage; Sonnerat, 

 Foy. Orient, ii. p. 153, t. 94-95. Gallus Sonncrati, Tern. 



This magnificent bird, commonly called the Jungle Cock, is a native 

 of India, where it occurs in great abundance, in woods and forests. 

 From this species it is that Sonnerat has asserted all our domestic 

 fowls have originated ; but as this opinion is not supported by- 

 evidence, and as the points of difference are very distinct, many 

 naturalists of the present day, and among others Dr. Leach, dissent 

 entirely from the generally received opinion. M. Temminck unhe- 

 sitatingly denies the possibility of such an origin, and considers 

 them as derived from more than a single stock, and that difference . 

 in point of form and plumage is independent of climate or accident. 

 It is from the Javan Cock, of Latham, (Gallus Bankiva, Tem.) 

 principally, that this celebrated ornithologist thinks our common 

 domestic fowl has been obtained. 



The Jungle Fowl of Sonnerat is somewhat smaller than our 

 domestic cock ; it has the beak horn-coloured, the comb notched, 

 and the wattles similar to ours, in colour of a lighter or deeper red, 

 but the bare space about the eyes, and on the throat, is larger in 

 this species ; the feathers on the head and neck become longer as 

 they approach the body. They are remarkably distinguished from 

 every other species of cock, in the size and flatness of the quills of 

 these feathers, forming a white stripe throughout the whole length 

 of the feather to the tip, where it becomes expanded into a round 

 film of a cartilaginous structure, very delicate, and highly polished. 

 The feathers of the back of the tail-coverts are long, narrow, of a 

 brownish black, marked with lighter spots of the same colour, and 



F 



