416 ON THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTIC POULTRY. 
could not fairly be considered as specifically allied ; and it 
therefore became necessary for me to shew how probable 
it was, that, as domestication, in the one case, has added 
both to the extent and verticality of the caudal plumes, — 
so, on the other, a return to the natural habits of the spe- 
cies would cause a corresponding assimilation in form and 
structure to the parent source. I therefore do not conceive 
that a good argument can be adduced from the dissimilar 
forms of the tail, to prove that our domestic poultry are in 
no way descended from the wild Java cock, called Ayam 
Bankiva. In all other respects the resemblance is as per- 
fect as can be expected to exist between birds, which for 
some thousand years have been influenced by domestica- 
tion, and the original stock, which has continued to dwell 
unsubjected to any other modifying power than that of 
nature. 
The conclusions which we are therefore entitled to draw 
from the preceding observations, are, 1st, That the Jungle 
Cock is not, as so generally supposed, the parent of our 
domestic poultry, from all the known varieties of which it 
differs materially, both in the form and structure of its 
plumage; and, 2dli/, That, as far as it is possible to judge 
in the present state of our knowledge, that honour is 
claimed by two species inhabiting the Asiatic Islands, 
which respectively possess the principal characters of our 
domestic kinds, and are not contradistinguished by any 
marked peculiarity of structure. 
