8 LOTSY AND KUIPER, A PRELIM. STATEMENT OF THE RESULTS OF MR. 
Nor does BEEBE’S chapter on the relation of the cock to man throw 
any light on this momentous question. According to him Cochin China 
fowls, including brahma’s and langshans, are misnamed as they original- 
ly came from Shanghai. Neither did the Brahmas come from the vicini- 
ty of that river, but were produced in the United States by crossing a 
variety of Malay fowl with Cochins. By crossing the latter with Domi- 
niques, the Plymouth rock was produced. The long-trailed fowls of Ja- 
pan the socalled Yokohama, Shinowara or Phoenix-fowls owe their 
long tails, reaching sometimes a length of over twenty feet to the non- 
moult of the tailcoverts and central rectrices. It is an extremely old ra- 
ce, which is said to have been known in Corea already before A. D.1000. 
Their fertility is very low, three fertile eggs out of twenty being consi- 
dered an excellent average. Within the last few years crossing with 
black minorcas and white leghorns has been practised, and the non- 
moult of the posterior dorsal feathers was found to bea dominant factor. 
As it could hardly be conceived how by any process of variation so 
many different races could have been obtained from Gallus bankiva, and 
as there was direct proof, that all or at least a large number of the more 
modern races had been obtained by crossing, Mr. Houwınk decided to 
attack the problem: from the experimental side, and began by procur- 
ing each of the now existing wild species. 
THE WILD SPECIES OF GALLUS 
BEEBE gives the following characters of this Genus, in which he ad- 
mits four species: Gallus gallus (Bankiva) Gallus lafayetti, Gallus son- 
nerati and Gallus varius or furcatus. 
All are birds of medium size, characterized in the cocks by the follo- 
wing features: 
„Ihe bill is stout, fairly short and curved, and the feet are strong and 
preeminently fitted for scratching. There is a large, erect, fleshy comb 
on the top of the head, extending from the base of the bill to behind the 
eyes, with the margin serrated or entire. The sides of the face, chin and 
throat are bare, either with two pairs of wattles situated below the ears 
and on each side of the throat, or a single median wattle down the mid- 
dle of the throat.” 
„The tail is composed of seven or eight pairs of feathers. This organ 
is strongly laterally compressed, and slightly graduated except the cen- 
