CHAPTER XX. 
THE FRIZZLED FOWL, 
IRDS with feathers more or less completely recurved are not uncommon in 
many parts of the East. In a large collection of the domesticated birds of 
nearly every country in the world, formed by Mr. C. Darwin, and placed at our 
service, many specimens occur with recurved feathers, some like Malays, with 
short frizzled hackles, and others with the peculiar plumage passing over the 
entire body. 
Frizzled fowls were described by Aldrovandus in 1645, and his description and 
engravings were alluded to by Willoughby, who, in his “ Ornithology,” states — 
“ We have often seen, and ourselves also have now at Middleton, another kind or 
variety of hen called in English the Frisland hen, not (as I suppose) because it 
was first brought to us out of Frisland, but because the feathers of the body are 
curled or frizzled ; by which epithet I believe this bird was first called, the word 
being afterwards, by the mistake of the vulgar, corrupted into Frislajicl, of like 
sound. For knowing this to be an outlandish hen, they thought it could not be 
more fitly denominated than from its country, and thereupon imagined it to be 
called a Frisland hen, instead of a frizzled hen. Nor did they want a probable 
argument to induce them to think it to be of a Frisland breed or original, viz. 
the curling of the feathers, vdiich one would be apt to attribute to the horror of 
cold. I suppose this to be the same bird which Aldrovandus hath put in the 
chapter of monstrous hens in the last place, whose figure, he saith, was sent him 
by Pompilius Tagiiaferrus, of Parma, with this description : ‘ I would have you 
to understand that there are two things especially found in this cock worthy of 
admiration. The first and chief is, that the feathers of its wings have a contrary 
situation to those of other birds, for that side which in others is naturally under- 
most or inmost, in this is turned outward, so that the whole wing seems to be 
inverted ; the other is, that the feathers of the neck are reflected towards the head, 
like a crest or ruff, which way the whole tail also turns up.’” 
Mr. E. L. Layard, v/riting from Ceylon, states that this fowl “ is called by the 
Cingalese, Caprikukidlo. It is found here but rarely, and the natives say they 
came from Batavia. This agrees with Temminck.” 
The Frizzled fowl is the Gallus crispiis (Frizzled fowl) of Brisson, and the 
Gallus pennis rcvolutis (Fowl with rolled-back feathers) of Linnaeus ; the Coq d 
plumes frisees of Temminck, who states that it is domesticated, and thrives well 
in Southern Asia, Java, Sumatra, and all the Philippine Islands, and that the 
prevailing colour of the race is white, the legs being generally smooth ; but there 
