HOUWINK’S EXPER. CONC. THE ORIGIN OF SOME DOMESTIC ANIMALS ZA 
A comparison of the measures of the British Indian and Javanese’ 
bird therefore gives: 
British India. Java. 
REN en ee en en 420-460 mm; 440 mm. 
RTE RENE RE NE 185 Seen 
OAN REE A AN ON RAS Li 69 OS 
middletoe with claw . . . . . . .. 50 46 
32 
The Javanese hen thus appears to be somewhat smaller than the Bri- 
tish-Indian ones. 
There seems to be however some diversity among bankiva-hens of 
the Malay Archipelago. On 12 hens present in the Leyden Museum of 
Natural History the junior author made the following notes: 
The animals differ in color and design of the neck-feathers. Shaft 
light yellow, web centrally black with yellow seam, the latter usually as 
broad as the black part, on each side of the shaft. Sometimes however 
the black part is broader than the yellow one (e. g. n°. 20. N epaul. 
- Frank) or the reverse (e. g.n°.22 Minahassa v. MUSSCHENBROEK) and 
n°. 48, between Kataparah and Tondano, Celebes). The intensity of the 
yellow also differs in different animals, very yellow is f.1. Gorontalo, Ce- 
lebes n°. 17 and n°. 22 S. Celebes). Unusually pale n°, 14 (HoDGSON) and 
n°. 24 JUNGHUHN, Java 1864. 
The breast differs from pure redbrown (shaft lighter) to pale brown. 
The palest ones are n°. 43 Timor, n°. 48 Celebes and n°. 14 HODGSON. 
The width of the white parts of the shaft is certainly one of the causes 
of the paler tint of the breast. 
There are also differences in the partridge-colored backcovering, 
both in the fineness of the grain of the light- and darkbrown design as 
in the tints of these colors. The contrast between the color of the shaft 
and that of the web is also much more prononced in some hens than in 
others. Very little contrast: n°. 18 Padang, n°. 22 Minahassa, n°. 48 
Tondano (Celebes). Occasionally there is a hint of a light seam around 
the partridge colored feathers, which might lead to pencilled feathers 
(pelteekening). There are considerable differences in size, perhaps de- 
pendant on age, n°. 20 FRANK, a bird from Nepaul is the largest, so 
that this points to a really larger British-Indian race. 
The bald places of the face, wattles and comb have lost their color, the 
color of the tarsi also is indistinct, n°. 16 appears to be yellowish green, 
n°. 17 (Gorantalo, Celebes) also has not the appearance of a blue tarsus. 
