186 
BIRD-LIFE. 
taming them. We do not even know with certainty 
which of the four well-known species of the families in 
question is the most useful and most widely distributed 
of all our domestic birds. Most naturalists consider that 
the Jungle-fowl of India (Gallus ferrugineus or Galius 
Bankiva ) is the original stock. It is not improbable, 
however, that all the wild Gallinaceous birds of Asia have 
more or less claim in this respect. That the taming of 
these creatures reaches back to the earliest times is 
beyond doubt. Old authors mention the Cock as a 
common domestic Fowl. The ancient Greeks called it 
simply, “ the bird.” 
With respect to other Gallinaceous birds, tradition has 
more or less to say. The Argonauts, in their world- 
renowned expedition, discovered on the banks of the 
Phasis, in Colchis, the bird which we now know by the 
name of its native home,—the Pheasant (Phasianus col - 
chicus), and brought it to Europe, where it soon became 
acclimatized. For all that, it is strictly an Asiatic bird; 
and, indeed, its allied species are found wild only in 
Asia. The well-known Chinese Pheasant, which we have 
named the Golden Pheasant, as well as its more sober- 
coloured, though prettier, cousin, the Silver Pheasant, 
have their home in Asia. China is pre-eminently the 
land of the Pheasant; for, besides those just mentioned, 
several other species of the same family are found there, 
though it is only of late years that we have become 
familiar with them. Japan comes next to China as a 
Pheasant country; while in India there are only a few 
insignificant species of that group to be found. On 
the other hand, we find there and in the Malay penin¬ 
sula, in Malacca, and in the islands of Sunda, singular 
members of the Rasores , or scraping-birds, which are 
