42 GALLUS SONNERATI. 



a broad white stripe in the course of the stcrm ; the under parts 

 and thighs blackish, with a greenish hue; the primaries dull 

 black ; the secondaries black with a shade of green ; the lesser and 

 middle wing-coverts have their stems flattened, and expand at the 

 tip, like the neck-feathers, but more thick and solid ; these films 

 are of a bright red colour ; the tail-coverts are deep violet, very 

 long, and arched on each plane of the tail, which consists of four- 

 teen feathers, black and glistening with green. The feet are 

 grey. 



The female, which is smaller than the male, has neither comb 

 nor wattles, and the throat is covered with feathers, in both which 

 points it differs strikingly from our hens ; the plumage of the under 

 parts resembles that of the cock, but the colours are duller ; the 

 neck-feathers arc not elongated, neither are they nor the wing- 

 coverts furnished with the cartilaginous film observed in the male ; 

 the upper parts are greyish, and more or less inclining to black, with 

 a streak of white extending along the stem of each feather. The 

 annexed figure of the male bird was made from a fine specimen in 

 the gardens of the Zoological Society ; that of the female is copied 

 from Sonnerat. 



M. Temminck, who has written an admirable work on the 

 Gallinacea, seems disposed to conjecture that the present species 

 also inhabits some parts of South America. Acosta, who was the 

 provincial of the Jesuits in Peru and Hispaniola, notices the ex- 

 istence of wild fowls prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in those 

 countries ; and Sonnini, during his travels in French Guiana, 

 often heard them crowing in the woods. Stedman likewise in- 

 forms us that, at Surinam, the common fowls are as good and 

 plenty as in our own country, but smaller, and their eggs differ in 

 shape, being more sharp-pointed. A smaller species of the dung- 

 hill kind, with rumpled inverted feathers, seems natural to Guiana, 

 being reared in the inland parts of the country by the Indians or 

 natives. 



The races or breeds of the common Domestic Cock (Phasianus 

 Gallus, Lin. ; Gallus domesticus, Steph.), are exceedingly nume- 

 rous ; for, with the exception of the purely white individuals, 

 scarcely any two are alike. The Crested Cock has the head orna- 



