CHAPTER XXI. 
THE BUMPLESS FOWL. 
T he Riimpless fowl was described and figured by Aldrovandus, under the title 
of the Persian fowl, in the edition published in 1645. In this work, which is 
still extant, the cock is represented with short stout legs, feet with four toes, and a 
few drooping saddle feathers falling over behind, in the place of the tail. The hen 
is of the same general form as the cock ; both sexes are represented with double 
combs, that of the cock being of enormous size, and deeply serrated. 
This is the Galliis ecaudatus, or Coq Wallikikilli of Temminck, and the Gallina 
muda sen uropygio carens, or Fowl without a tail, or rump, of Linnaeus. It is the 
Rumpless or Persian Cock of Latham, and the Rumpkin of others ; the specimens 
figured by Aldrovandus two centuries ago, appear only to have differed from those 
which are now seen in having a black plumage variously marked with yellow. 
Sonini and Temminck state that it is a native of the Ceylon forests, and is 
called by the natives Wallikikilli, or Cock of the Woods. These erroneous 
statements are disproved by Mr. E. L. Layard. Writing from Ceylon in 1850, 
he says The Bumpless fowl is not a wild inhabitant of this island, in spite of 
Temminck. It is a rather rare, tame introduction from Cochin, I am told. It 
may appear like boasting, but I can confidently say I am more acquainted with the 
Ceylon Fauna than any man living, and that if the bird had existed wild I must 
have seen it. Wallikikilli is the name for the female of Gallus Stanleyi, meaning 
literally, Walli, jungle, and kikilli, hen. The name of the Bumpkin is Choci- 
kukidlo, literally Cochin fowls.” — Card. Chron.,” 1851, 619.) 
There can be no doubt that the Bumpless fowl does not exist in a wild state in 
any region of the globe. It has evidently taken its rise in an accidental variation, 
which has been perpetuated by the care of man ; its continued existence is a very 
good example of the perpetuation of a variety by the process of artificial selection. 
Temminck, though in error respecting their origin, described the structural 
peculiarities of these remarkable fowls vhth great accuracy. He states : — The 
distinctive characters of this species consist in the loss of the last vertebraB of 
the back, those that bear the fleshy protuberance termed the rump ; the absence 
of these vertebrae is the natural cause of the cocks and the hens of this kind 
losing the feathers of the tail.” 
At a recent date there were in the Zoological Gardens, Paris, specimens of 
Bumpless fowls described under the erroneous name of ‘‘ WallikikiP 
The Rev. J. Clayton, in the “Philosophical Transactions” for 1693, p. 992, 
says that he observed in Virginia that the hens and cocks were for the most part 
