THE POULTKY BOOK. 
261 
great pride and an utter disregard of liis own gastronomic requirements. Indeed, 
were it not for a mouthful now and then taken on the sly, it is difficult to conceive 
how the cock manages to sustain his portly body. On rare occasions intense 
hunger seem to overcome the poor fellow’s sense of his devoirs to the fair sex, 
and I have at such moments, to my great amusement, detected him in the act 
of furtively swallowing a choice hit, or bolting it in the face of dame Partlet, to 
her astonishment, just as she had been invited to partake of it herself. When 
danger threatens, especially in the shape of a hawk or kite in the air, the cock 
utters a long, low croak, an unmistakable warning to look out,” on which the 
whole community of hens and young birds scamper under cover, while the chief 
remains ready to fight all comers. These birds roost always on some eminence 
in a wild state, on trees in the jungle ; and before all the party has settled to sleep 
the male occasionally gives a low, prolonged cooing whistle, to which a hen or 
two sometimes respond. As morning dawns they leap silently to the ground, 
and remain feeding about, and at or near six o’clock the cock mounts some eleva- 
tion, and begins to crow at intervals for a quarter of an hour or so, after clapping 
his wings together two or three times back to back. 
This bird must be sought in all jungly country which is partly cultivated ; and 
where paddy fields extend in long strips into the forest, two sportsmen walking 
one on each side just within the cover, with a line of beaters between them, can 
enjoy very pretty shooting. The fowls rise from the stubble and fly into the w^ood, 
passing over head, and the sport resembles pheasant-shooting in England, the 
flight and size of the birds being pretty similar. When the fields have been 
cleared of the fowls, the shooting may be continued with success in the w^oods if 
they be pretty open, and the sportsman furnished with spaniels ; wffiich cause 
the birds to tree, from whence very pretty snap-shots may be obtained, as they 
will often rest on a high branch till the sportsman has arrived underneath before 
taldng wing again. Both cocks and hens make a desperate cackling and flutter 
when thus roused up by dogs, and I know of no shooting wffiich requires greater 
nerve and steadiness. If there are no dogs the birds will not tree, but run 
slyly and silently along and are seen no more, unless you be mounted on an 
elephant, when it is easy enough to pot them, should you be so minded, as they 
skulk under the brushwood. The wild poultry are not subject to migrations, 
even to the extent to which pea-fowl shift their quarters ; but in the hot 
season and the rains they retire deeper into the woods, the cultivated tracts no 
longer affording food, while the sylvan recesses provide seclusion and shelter for 
breeding. 
It may be asked. What are the processes by which all our various breeds have 
been derived from this one species ? The explanation is not difficult. All animals, 
even those in a wild state, are subject to variation ; differently coloured and formed 
individuals of every species are occasionally observed. These variations occur 
much more frequently amongst animals in a state of domestication ; and mankind, 
from the remotest ages, have observed that such changes are hereditary ; hence. 
