DOMESTIC POULTRY. 
411 
ference of structure of the cervical feathers, and of some 
other parts of the plumage, that we must seek elsewhere 
for the parent stock of our common poultry. 
I may mention, however, another very decisive circum- 
stance, which I am not aware has as yet been insisted on. 
The native tribes of Indians, inhabiting the districts where 
the jungle cock abounds, rear a breed of poultry which 
differs as much from the supposed original as our own, and 
which never intermingles with the forest brood. Perhaps 
nothing points out the distinction of species more strongly 
than this fact of their not seeking each other's society, when 
we know that even the pheasant, a bird of a different ge- 
nus, frequently breeds with the domestic hen. 
The same class of objections in regard to the structure 
of the plumage, holds good, and indeed in still greater force, 
against the fork-tailed cock {Gallus furcaius) from Java. 
The comb is entire, the throat is furnished with a single 
longitudinal wattle down its centre ; and the feathers of the 
neck, instead of being narrow, lengthened, and acuminated, 
are broad, short, and rounded, and cover each other like 
large scales of velvet. This beautiful species abounds in 
the forests of Java, but its habits are wild and irreclaim- 
able, and its disposition unfits it for domestication. 
Still less can we trace the origin of our domestic breeds 
to the parentage of the Macartney Cock {Gallus Macart- 
nii), one of the most beautiful of gallinaceous birds, dis- 
tinguished by the greater comparative length of his legs, 
and the elegant plume of feathers which adorns his head. 
A remarkable difference exists in the appearance of the 
male and female of this bird. The species inhabits Suma- 
tra. 
The opinions of Gamelli Carreri on these and other 
points of natural history are of slight value. The observa- 
tions of Dampier and Sonnini proved the existence of wild 
