HOUWINK’S EXPER. CONC. THE ORIGIN OF SOME DOMESTIC ANIMALS 31 
is absent or very sparse at the small end, while the rest of the shell 
shows an even, minute speckling, or this reddish pigment may increase 
towards the obtuse end until it is all confluent at that point. 
The eggs vary from 33 to 36 mm. in breadth, and from 45 to 48 mm. 
in length, averaging 35 by 47 mm. 

Fig. 1. Eggs of Gallus lafayetti. 
The Ceylon Junglefowl seems to have entered quite deeply into the 
life of the Singhalese in past times, for it is found on graves, and old tem- 
ple-lamps as decoration; they are up to the present time frequently 
trapped by the natives, but even in Ceylon they do not thrive well in 
captivity, and there are only a few instances of birds having been rea- 
red from the nest and kept for years in good health and feather. There 
is no record of Gallus lafayetti having bred in captivity in Ceylon but it 
has done so at least once in the London zoolo, ical Gardens in the year 
1874. Of eleven individuals which have been confined in those Gardens 
one lived for three years, the average length of all being a year and a 
half. There is apparently much individual variation. PRICE observed a 
nearly white hen, some hens are very dark, often with black spots on 
tail and wings. 
The Ceyton jungle fowl crosses but rarely spontaneously with domes- 
tic fowl, yet here and there hybrids resulting from such interbreeding 
are to be found in the native villages. 
Experiments of crossing them purposely with domestic fowl are re- 
sumed by BEEBE thus: 
1. The hybrids are not always sterile when bred inter se. 
2. They are not sterile when bred back to the domestic parent (ive: 
hybrid cock with domestic hen). 
