4 LOTSY AND KUIPER, A PRELIM. STATEMENT OF THE RESULTS OF MR. 
1877 p. 780 as to bankiva-like birds from Ponapé almost indistinguish- 
able from real ban kiva’s fromSumatra ; again such a statement byGUIL- 
LEMARD Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885 p. 272 in regard to bankiva-like birds 
from Sulu-Island, Rushai and Ponapé, also a statement of the same 
kind by HARTERT , Novitates zoologicae X p. 176, as to birds indistin- 
guishable from real bankiva’s inhabiting in large numbers the island of 
Wetter, north of Timor. This author gives however as a minor alternati- 
ve the possibility that wild-caught bankiva’s may have been introduc- 
ed on Wetter. It must however be remembered that BEEBE evidently 
goes very far in accepting reversion, he even seems to doubt the genui- 
ness of the bankiva’s found on Java, of which he says I. c. p. 177: 
, My own researches in this island (Java) have led me to the certain 
belief that the Red Junglefowl is a recent introduction, an intruder into 
the territory of the true Javan bird (Gallus varius). Many more instan- 
ces might be adduced of quite clear proof of the running wild of domes- 
tic fowls, and while I shall allude to this in another connection, I men- 
tion it here only to emphasize the importance of trying to limit the ran- 
ge of this bird to the natural, normal boundaries. J admit Sumatra as a 
valid locality, because of the corresponding distribution of several spe- 
cies of pheasants, such as the Malayan crestless fireback (Acomus ery- 
throphthalmus) and the Malayan argus pheasant (Argusianus argus)’. 
As to the readiness with which bankiva crosses habitually with do- 
mestic fowl, BEEBE gives several instances. Referring to the direct and 
swift flight of wild Junglefow! he says I. c. p. 181: 
„This facility of flight seems all the more striking when we see it dis- 
played by the village fowls of many parts of the East. When, in riding 
over the trails or Government roads in the Malay states, one comes sud- 
denly upon a group of fowls, instead of blundering ahead or with frigh- 
tened squawks and frantic, awkward beating of wings flopping toward 
their native coops, they often rise swiftly, and with the greatest ease fly 
out over the steep slope, all together like a flock of doves, then circle 
around and come back to the road some distance behind. This reveals 
clearly the recent admixture of wild blood, and is correlated with a 
much lower fertility than exists among more carefully bred domestic 
strains. Further: l.c. p. 196 „It is difficult to say whether Junglefowl in 
general are decreasing or are at least holding their own. If we consider 
only the isolated, really pure strains, they are unquestionably beco- 
ming fewer in numbers, but those which haunt the vicinity of villages 
