HOUWINK’S EXPER. CONC. THE ORIGIN OF SOME DOMESTIC ANIMALS 25 
the border of the virgin forest. Between that forest and the Cinchona- 
plantations there was a foot path of a few yards width, the best place 
to shoot the Kasintoe’s as the natives there call Gallus gallus and many 
a delicate morsel was there obtained for the kitchen. As the Kasintoe- 
cocks used to leave the forest towards dusk to look for food in the Cin- 
chona-plantations they could be shot on that footpath when they retur- 
ned towards the forest; it was, on account of the narrowness of that 
footpath and on account of the swiftness of their flight, not inferior to 
that of our pheasants, however not an easy shot. In my memory the 
number of cocks which came out of the forest was very much larger 
than that of the hens, probably due to the incubating duties of the lat- 
ter, it is however certain that hens also were among their number as I 
remember very well having shot them. Although, at that time, not par- 
ticularly interested in that bird, except as game, any considerable dif- 
ferences among them would certainly have called my attention, while I 
have, on the contrary, a very distinct recollection of great uniformity 
in size and color of the cocks which all were georgeously colored birds in 
which the maroon of the neckfeathers was most conspicuous. 
That these birds were preeminently insect- and fruit-eaters (the fruit 
of a large Elatostemma was a special delicacy to them) is indelibly 
written in the senior author’s memory by a very sad experience. In a 
large bamboo enclosure covered also at the top, erected on a grass-plot 
behind his bungalow, he kept a hen and a cock which had been trapped 
by the natives and — unacquainted with the habits of bankiva — fed 
them with rice. On this diet they apparently throve well, loosing no- 
thing of their wildness and running very fast within the enclosure until 
the last day of their lives, death occuring, after a few weeks of captivi- 
ty, at very nearly the same date. Imagine his horror, when, on picking 
up their bodies, he found them horribly emaciated, nothing but skin 
over bones, the poor things having been starved to death by his igno- 
rance as to their diet. His only excuse is, that the grass in their enclo- 
sure had hidden the fact, that the rice given to them had not been ea- 
ten while their quick running and the good condition of their plumage 
seemed to point towards excellent health. 
This involuntary experiment shows however plainly that the wild 
bankiva cannot subsist on a grain-diet unless gradually accustomed 
to it. Never did the senior author see any bankiva at any considerable 
distance from the forest and never in or near any of the neighbouring 
