Domestic Poultry.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE.' 



391 



it is the Gallus giganteus of Temrninck. In India 

 it is known only as a domestic bird, but Colonel 

 Sykes states that he has reasons for believing it to 

 have been introduced there by the Mussulmans from 

 Sumatra or Java. The iris of the real game bud 

 should be whitish or straw-yellow. Colonel Sykes 

 landed two cocks and a hen in England in June, 

 1831 : they bore the winter well ; the hen laid freely, 

 and has reared two broods of chickens. The cock has 

 not the shrill clear crow of the ordinary breed. The 

 hen is a third smaller than the male. The cock has 

 a method of restina;, when tired, on the whole of the 

 tarsus laid flat on the ground, and very ungainly the 

 mode appears. See 'Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1832, p. 

 151. The comb of this bird is compressed, thick, 

 but little elevated, and with a smooth instead of a 

 serrated ridge ; the wattles are small, and the throat 

 is naked. 



All have heard of the Eccaleobion, or apparatus 

 for hatching chickens by the heat of steam, lately ex- 

 hibited in London. The practice of hatching broods 

 by the application of artificial heat is not novel ; it 

 has been in operation in Egypt from a very early 

 period. The eggs are placed by hundreds in 

 ovens, or rather small chambers, the temperature of 

 which is regulated with great nicety at a degree of 

 about ninety-six Fahrenheit. At the time of hatch- 

 ing people come from all quarters to purchase the 

 young chickens, which require but little trouble in 

 rearing. We extract the following account from 

 the ' Library of Entertaining Knowledge — Habits 

 of Birds :' — 



" Modern travellers, who mention the art as prac- 

 tised in Egypt, are very deficient in their details ; 

 but we ought to wonder the less at this when Father 

 Sicard informs us that it is kept a secret even in 

 Egypt, and is only known to the inhabitants of 

 the village of Berme, and a few adjoining places in 

 the Delta, who leave it as an heirloom to their 

 children, forbidding them to impart it to strangers. 

 When the beginning of autumn, the season most fa- 

 vourable for hatching, approaches, the people of 

 this village disperse themselves over the country, 

 each taking the management of a number of eggs 

 intrusted to his care by those acquainted with the 

 art. 



" According to the best descriptions of the Egyp- 

 tian mamal, or hatching oven, it is a brick structure 

 about nine feet high. The middle is formed into a 

 gallery about three feet wide and eight feet high, 

 extending from one end of the building to the other. 

 This gallery forms the entrance to the oven, and 

 commands its whole extent, facilitating the various 

 operations indispensable for keeping the eggs at the 

 proper degree of warmth. On each side of this gal- 

 lery there is a double row of rooms, every room on 

 the ground-floor having one over it of precisely the 

 same dimensions, namely, three feet in height, four 

 or five in breadth, and twelve or fifteen in length. 

 These have a round hole for an entrance of about a 

 foot and a half in diameter, wide enough for a man 

 to creep through ; and into each are put four or five 

 thousand eggs. The number of rooms in one mamal 

 varies from three to twelve ; and the building is 

 adapted, of course, for hatching from forty to eighty 

 thousand eggs, which are not laid on the bare brick 

 floor of the oven, but upon a mat, or bed of flax, or 

 other non-conducting material. 



" In each of the upper rooms is a fire-place for 

 warming the lower room, the heat being communi- 

 cated through a large hole in the centre. The fire- 

 place is a sort of gutter, two inches deep and six 

 wide, on the edge of the floor, sometimes all round, 

 but for the most part only on two of its sides. As 

 wood or charcoal would make too quick a fire, they 

 burn the dung of cows or camels, mixed with straw, 

 formed into cakes and dried. The doors which open 

 into the gallery serve for chimneys to let out the 

 smoke, which finally escapes through openings in 

 the arch of the gallery itself. The fire in the gutters 

 is only kept up, according to some, for an hour in 

 the morning and an hour at night, which they call 

 the dinner and supper of the chickens ; while others 

 say it is lighted four times a-day. The difference 

 probably depends on the temperature of the weather. 

 When the smoke of the fires has subsided, the open- 

 ings into the gallery from the several rooms are 

 carefully stuffed with bundles of coarse tow, by 

 which the heat is more effectually confined than it 

 could be by a wooden door. 



"When the fires have been continued for an in- 

 definite number of days — eight, ten, or twelve, ac- 

 cording to the weather— they are discontinued, the 

 heat acquired by the ovens being then sufficient to 

 finish the hatching, which requires in all twenty-one 

 days, the same time as when eggs are naturally 

 hatched by a hen. About the middle of this period 

 a number of the eggs in the lower are moved into 

 the upper rooms, in order to give the embryos greater 

 facility in making their exit from the shell, than 

 they would have if a number of eggs were piled up 

 above them. 



" The number of ovens dispersed in the several dis- 



tricts of Egypt has been estimated at 386; and this 

 number can never be either increased or diminished 

 without, the circumstance being known, as it is indis- 

 pensable for each mamal to be managed by a Ber- 

 mean, none of whom are permitted to practise their 

 art without a certified licence from the Aga of Berme, 

 who receives ten crowns for each licence. It' then 

 we take into account that six or eight broods are 

 annually hatched in each oven, and that each brood 

 consists of from forty thousand to eighty thousand, 

 we. may conclude that the gross number of chickens 

 which are every year hatched in Egypt amounts to 

 nearly one hundred millions. They lay their account 

 with losing about a third of all the eggs put into the 

 ovens. The Bermean, indeed, guarantees only two- 

 thirds of the eggs with which he is intrusted by the 

 undertaker, so~that out of forty-five thousand eggs 

 he is obliged to return no more than thirty thousand 

 chickens. If he succeeds in hatching these, the 

 overplus becomes his perquisite, which he adds to 

 the sum of thirty or forty crowns, besides his board, 

 that is paid him for his six months' work." 



Fig. 1720 represents an Egyptian egg-oven. Fig. 

 1721, the ground-plan of the same. Fig. 1722, trans- 

 verse section and elevation. Fig. 1723, transverse 

 section and perspective elevation. 



Reaumur tried many experiments on the arti- 

 ficial modes of hatching eggs ; he first, attempted 

 to bring the chicks to maturity by placing the eggs 

 in hotbeds of manure — but the attempt failed. He 

 then put the eggs into a sort of frame (Fig. 1724) 

 composed of a series of open boxes, and put them 

 into a stable heated by manure, but without, success ; 

 the vapour evidently destroyed their vitality — they 

 became moist as if they had been clipped into noi- 

 some water ; and putrefaction ensued. He next en- 

 closed the eggs in casks, sunk in the bed of manure ; 

 but raised about three inches above the surface of 

 the bed, as seen at Fig. 1725, and to the delight of 

 himself and his gardener, who took great interest in 

 the proceedings, was eminently successful. 



In consequence of these results, the rector of St. 

 Sulpice felt a desire to extend the practice, and ap- 

 plied to M. Reaumur for instructions, but instead of 

 recommending hotbeds of manure, the naturalist 

 imagined that he might take advantage of the heat 

 of the buead-ovens belonging to the extensive bene- 

 volent Institution called L'Enfant Jesus. "After 

 several trials to ascertain the heat of a room which 

 was situated over this bake-house, and such arrange- 

 ments as were necessary for ensuring uniformity^ it 

 was determined to place the eggs m order upon the 

 shelves of a small cupboard placed there, and intrust 

 the care of them to the nuns of the establishment. 

 In one of the first experiments made here the charge 

 of keeping a single box containing a hundred eggs 

 was intrusted to a very ingenious nun who was 

 quite enthusiastic in the business. Above half of 

 these eggs proved abortive, but it was worthy of re- 

 mark that about twenty were hatched about one 

 day sooner than they would have been under a hen. 

 When the first of them appeared, the nun was trans- 

 ported with joy, and directly ran to tell the news 

 to everybody she could find." 



Fig. 1726 shows the hatching-room over the 

 bake-house of the Priory of L'Enfant Jesus at Paris. 



In the case of artificial hatching it is evident that 

 under ordinary circumstances some plan must be 

 adopted to supply the place of the careful fostering 

 hen. It is to the backs of chickens that the warmth 

 of the hen is chiefly applied, as they huddle under 

 her body and wings ; keeping this fact in view, M. 

 Reaumur constructed what he termed artificial mo- 

 thers, of which the most simple is merely a box 

 lined with sheepskin with the wool on it, of a square 

 form with the top sloped like a writing-desk, in order 

 to accommodate chickens of various sizes (Fig. 

 1727) ; this was open at each end, and placed in an 

 enclosure of wire or netting. Fig. 1728 shows an im- 

 provement on the preceding, in which the fostering 

 place is continued from a cage for exercise and feed- 

 ing, and furnished with moveable covers, capable of 

 being regulated according to the growth of the 

 chickens, but always so low as to prevent them from 

 climbing over each other. Fig. 1729 represents a 

 still more ingenious apparatus, consisting of a stove, 

 with an apartment round it. for the young brood, 

 and a network both to prevent their escape and too 

 near approach to the stove. Of the heat of this 

 stove M. Reaumur took advantage to hatch fresh 

 broods by hanging eggs in baskets over it, nicely 

 adjusting the temperature. A similar apparatus 

 (Fig. 1730) he applied to water-fowls, as ducks, &c, 

 surrounding it with green turf, and adding a small 

 pond to the feeding-room. 



With respect to the habits of our domestic fowls 

 nothing need be said. The crow of the cock, the 

 cackle of the hen, the care of chanticleer over his 

 harem, his attention and spirit, the cluck with which 

 he calls the females to some acceptable food, their 

 mode of dusting their feathers, their habit of swal- 

 lowing gravel and small pebbles, to assist in the 

 trituration of grain, subjected to the action of the 



muscular gizzard, these and many other points m 

 their economy are known to all. From the domestic 

 fowl we shall advance to some of the wild breeds. 



1731. — The Bankiva Jungle-Fowl 

 (Gallus Bankiva, Temm.). The Javan cock of 

 Latham ; Ayam utan of the Malays. 



This beautiful species is a native of Java, and, 

 though smaller in size, closely resembles the black- 

 breasted red game breed of our own country. It 

 tenants the jungles, and in some districts is very 

 abundant. We have seen many specimens in the 

 Gardens of the Zoological Society. A larger variety 

 or perhaps a distinct species is found on the conti- 

 nent of India. The plumage of the male is as 

 follows: — the hackles of the neck and rump are 

 long, and of a fine rich orange red ; the upper part 

 of the back below the hackles bluish black; the 

 shoulders bright chestnut red ; the greater coverts 

 and secondaries deep steel-blue; the quills brownish 

 black, edged with pale reddish yellow; tail black, 

 with green and steel-blue reflexions ; breast and 

 under parts black; the comb, which is upright and 

 deeply indented, the naked space round the eyes, 

 and the wattles scarlet. The hen closely resembles 

 a brown game hen, of the same breed as the black- 

 breasted red, or duck-winged game cock. 



That this wild fowl, or the larger continental 

 species allied to it, is the origin of our domestic 

 race (and especially the game Dreed referred to) we 

 have no doubt. It is at the same time very probable 

 that other species are commingled with it, our 

 domestic breed being of mixed origin, the game 

 race the purest. Should such be the case, the theory 

 of the non-fertility of the produce of two distinct 

 species, as a strict rule, falls to the ground. The 

 Javan jungle-fowl, and we believe Sonnerat's jungle- 

 fowl, will breed with the ordinary race, and the 

 progeny rapidly multiplies. Besides the present 

 species, we may notice the Bronzed Jungle-fowl 

 (Gallus ^neus), and the Fork-tailed Jungle-fowl 

 (Gallus furcatus, Temminck), as natives of Java 

 and Sumatra. The former, which was discovered in 

 the interior of Sumatra by M. Diard, is larger than 

 the Bankiva cock ; the edge of the comb is smooth ; 

 and the feathers of the neck and rump, though 

 elongated, are not true hackles. The latter, a native 

 of Java, has also the comb entire, and is destitute ot 

 true hackles, but instead of double wattles it has 

 only one, of large size, pendent from the middle line 

 of the throat. 



1732, 1733, 1734. — Sonnerat's Jungle-Fowl (male 



and female) 

 (Gallus Sonneratii). Jungle-fowl of the sportsmen 

 in India ; Rahn Komrah of the Mahrattas. 



This splendid bird, of which many specimens have 

 lived Jong in the menagerie of the Zool. Soc, is 

 celebrated for its high courage and prowess, and is 

 in great request among the cock-fighters of Hindos- 

 tan, who consider it more than a match for a larger 

 bird of the ordinary breed. Its port is erect and 

 stately, and its form is admirable. In size this 

 species is nearly equal to the domestic fowl, but 

 is lighter and more graceful. The comb is only 

 slightly indented ; the wattles are large and double ; 

 the hackles (though they scarcely come under this 

 term) of the neck, of the wing and tail-coverts dark 

 greyish, with bright golden orange shafts dilating 

 in the centre and towards the tip into a flat homy 

 plate. In some of these feathers the shaft takes an 

 elliptical or oar-like shape ; in others it puts on the 

 appearance of a long inverted cone, from the centre 

 of the base of which a battledore-like process arises. 

 The substance and appearance of these plates 

 have been not inaptly compared with the wax-like 

 plates which ornament the wings and tail of the 

 Bohemian Chatterer. The effect produced by this 

 modification of the shafts is singular and beautiful. 

 Feathers of the middle of the back, breast, belly, 

 and thighs deep rich grey, with paler shafts and 

 edges ; tail generally rich deep green ; the feathers 

 which immediately succeed the hackles are rich 

 purple, with a pale yellow edge ; those next in suc- 

 cession are golden-green, with grey edges, and all 

 are glossed with brilliant metallic reflexions; bill, 

 legs, and feet yellow. The living bird presents 

 altogether a rich and striking object, especially 

 when the sun shines on the plumage. 



Female less than the cock by about a third, with- 

 out comb or wattles, but a trace of nakedness round 

 the eye. The plumage (generally) is without the 

 horny structure which distinguishes that of the male. 

 Upper parts uniform brown ; neck feathers with 

 dark edges, those of the back and wing-coverts with 

 a pale streak along the shaft, and those of the wings, 

 tail-coverts, and tail waved and mottled with darker 

 pencillings; throat and front of the neck white; 

 feathers of the rest of the lower parts greyish white, 

 edged with dark brown ; legs and feet bluish grey. 



1735, 1736. — The Fiee-backed Jungle-Fowl 

 (Euplocamus ignitus, Temm.). Fire-backed Phea- 

 sant ; Macartney cock ; Phasianus ignitus. 



