25G 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
in this manner, as may be ascertained by reference to the chapter on G-ame Fowls 
in the present volume. 
We have quoted these remarks to show the amount of ignorance that prevails 
respecting the origin of our domestic breeds, selecting Messrs. Johnson and 
Wingfield’s hook as being comparatively recent, and the most pretentious work 
that has been published on the subject. 
Leaving the absurd conclusions of the mere bookmaker for the investigations 
of men who are of the highest authority as observant naturalists, we arrive at a 
totally different conclusion. 
Three of the most eminent naturalists of the present day, working indepen- 
dently of each other, and regarding the same facts from different points of view, 
have come to a similar conclusion respecting the origin of our domestic breeds — a 
conclusion that must be acquiesced in by all who have studied their premises. It 
is that there is but one species from whence all our domesticated varieties have 
descended, and that that species is the common red Jungle fowl, the Gallus 
ferrugineus, of India. 
Mr. T. C. Jerdon, the author of that admirable work, ‘‘The Birds of India;” 
Mr. E. Blyth, whose opportunities for personal investigation into the history of 
these birds has been unusually great ; and Mr. C. Darwin, whose attention has 
been devoted for many years to the study of the subject of variation in our domes- 
ticated animals, have all independently arrived at this conclusion. 
The facts on which their inferences are based are too numerous to be detailed at 
length in a work of the character of the present volume, but they may be briefly 
alluded to. In the first place, no one of the numerous domesticated varieties 
exists in a wild state ; the forests of the tropical world know no such fowls as the 
Kulrn cock, the Silky fowl, the Cochin, the Frizzled fowl, the Bantam, &c., &c., 
as is so constantly stated by writers on poultry. 
Such being the case, we must either imagine the origin of our domestic breeds 
to be some species that no longer exists in the wild state ; — or to be some existing 
wild species ; — or to be the result of crosses between several existing wild species. 
The first supposition is most improbable. We know that the jungles of India offer 
to birds by far too secure an abode for us to imagine that the original breed of 
poultry has been exterminated. The improbability that our breeds are the results 
of crosses between two or more species has been already alluded to. The investi- 
gations of Dr. Salter, which were detailed at length in the “ Natural History 
Be view,” prove most convincingly that the hybrids so produced are deficient in 
fertility, and that the cross-bred races soon die out, even under the most favour- 
able circumstances. Moreover, their plumage is unlike that of any domestic 
variety. Hence we are reduced to regard the common Jungle fowl, the Gallus 
ferrugineus of Gmelin, as the original species from whence all our varieties are 
derived. 
To the minds of persons unaccustomed to study the extent of variation in 
species, this conclusion may appear very forced and unnatural. That the Cochin 
