THE BANKIVA COCK. 
177 
On the lower part of the back, rump, and part of the 
tail-coverts, the hackles are broad, the centres solid 
deep black, glossed with green, steel-blue, and pur- 
ple, none of them very lengthened or pendulous. 
The quills and secondaries black, glossed with steel- 
blue, the greater coverts chestnut on the outer webs. 
Belly and vent black. Tail nearly like that of the 
common fowl, perhaps a little more horizontal, centre 
feather longest, curved and bending out. The larger 
tail-coverts steel-blue, broad, curved, and bending 
outwards. 
To this we refer the Gallus Turcicus of Brisson, 
or Cock of Turkey. The true Bantams, so called 
from the name of the town in Java, are distin- 
guished by the plumed legs, a variation incident on- 
ly to cultivation and domestication. A still more 
dwarf race is known under the title of the Gallus 
pumilo ; this is extremely diminutive, but nearly of 
the same colours, and is much cultivated among 
cock-fanciers. There is a club in the vicinity of 
London who compete and give prizes to those who 
succeed in producing the smallest breed. 
These seem to be the principal cultivated races of 
these useful birds. Innumerable crosses are, how- 
ever, made according to the taste of fanciers, re- 
markable both for their beauty and deformity. The 
origin of them all, and the claim of some to distinc- 
tion, is however still in a certain obscurity, and will 
probably continue so. 
