The Javan Jungle Fowl. 
505 
spoilt through some neglect. But this marked instance does not stand alone. In our own 
Brahma breeding, although we never had the wattles altogether absent we have many times 
had the middle one excessively developed, while the true wattles were scarcely visible ; and on 
writing to Mr. F. Wragg, who has probably bred more Brahmas than any one else living, he informs 
us that he has on several occasions bred birds in which the two wattles were joined together, 
though the division remained plainly perceptible. Hence it is plain that there is still a per- 
ceptible, though slight, tendency to revert to a single median wattle in the Brahma breed. 
Even this is not all. We have already seen that this Brahma breed has the forked tail so 
characteristic of Gallus furcatus ; which, considered together with the preceding facts, is a strange 
coincidence. The same forked tail we have occasionally seen in several other breeds ; and once, in 
a report of a show, we remarked upon it in a prize Game Fowl. But further, and stranger still, Mr. 
Fig. 100 . — Head of Brahma with Single Wattle. 
Darwin has referred to the shaded bands across the tails of some Borneo fowls, which he thinks 
may hence have had a cross from the Gallus furcatus , since hybrids of that fowl often show the same 
feature. These shaded bands we have frequently observed across the green-black tail-feathers of our 
own Dark Brahmas, and still more often across the tails of birds bred by Mr. Teebay. Across the 
greenish-black will be rather broad bands of blue and purple, and we believe these are never seen 
in other fowls unless crossed with Brahmas ; at all events, we have examined every pen containing 
a cock in several large shows, without finding an example in other than the Brahma classes. And, 
finally, as regards this part of the subject, in the best and purest-coloured Dark Brahma cocks, 
there is a greenish lustre to both black and white of the hackles and saddle-feathers, which is not 
to be seen in any other breed having black and white hackles, such as Silver Duckwing Game, or 
Silver-grey Dorkings. If it be considered that these several points of resemblance all occur in one 
breed, they certainly suggest some curious conclusions. 
Still further, we find that the blue or purple comb, unserrated, of the Gallus furcatus is a 
conspicuous feature of an existing breed, the Silky Fowl. And it will not have been forgotten 
that the Brahma, which offers those curious points of resemblance referred to in the preceding 
paragraphs, is marked besides by a peculiar comb ; which though not that of the Gallus furcatus , 
still in many cases approaches it ; for we have seen many Brahma cocks with pea-combs in which, 
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