HOUWINK’S EXPER. CONC. THE ORIGIN OF SOME DOMESTIC ANIMALS 35 
months, the average length of life of the others being two years and a 
half. The period of incubation lasts from 18 to 19 days. The only birds 
now living in Holland are, as far as we dre aware, in the possession of 
Mr. F. E. BLAAUW in ’s Graveland. : 
When the eggs of wild Jungle fowl are brought in and hatched under 
a domestic hen, the chicks remain contentedly with the mother until 
they are able to fly, when they roost at night by themselves in some 
bush or low tree. When a few months old they invariably retreat to the 
jungle, and do not return. | 
In Europe they become apparently quite tame, GHIGI writes in Ge- 
netica 1922, p. 367. 
„Le Gallus sonnerati pur sang s'est démontré chez moi, (près Bologne 
en Italie), oiseau absolument sédentaire, avec tendence à faire des in- 
cursions dans les fermes voisines, et y féconder les poules ordinaires”. 
The latter it evidently also does in its native country, as BEEBE L.c., p. 
243 states: 
„In the native villages of Kamara and elswhere it is notararesight to 
see hybrids which possess more or less perfectly the bright sealing wax 
hackles of one parent, while they have inherited sufficient domestic in- 
stincts to induce them to remain with the other inmates of the com- 
pound.”’ 
During the eclipse moult there is no trace left of the waxy feathers 
on the neck, these being replaced with black feathers, the whole aspect 
of the bird is then changed; this special moult lasts only for three 
months after the breeding season, then the regular annual moult sets 
in, when these black temporary neck-feathers are shed with the entire 
body and wing plumage, and replaced with resplendent new feathers. 
The shedding of the long central tailfeathers is irregular. 
BEEBE gives the following detailed description: 
Adult male. The feathering of the head is confined to a narrow line of 
reddish, rather recurved feathers between the comb and the eye, anda 
small rounded tuft of silvery-white feathers covering the ear. The face, 
chin and throat appear naked, but are evenly but thinly covered with 
a scanty growth of filo-plumes, each a simple hair-like shaft, or tipped 
with several rudimentary barbs. Immediately back of the comb the 
feathers take on the character of the hackles as a whole. The smallest of 
these show a small spot flat and enamel-like, framed in black, with the 
base of the feather white. As we proceed backward over the neck, the 
