A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF THE RESULTS OF Mr. 
HOUWINK’S EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF 
SOME DOMESTIC ANIMALS 
by 
J. P. Lotsy and K. KUIPER 
Il 
(with 2 coloured plates) 
THE ORIGIN OF OUR DOMESTIC POULTRY 
When Mr. HOUWINK began his experiments, it was generally belie- 
ved, that allour domestic poultry had descended by mutation from the 
wild Gallus bankiva, which occurs up to the present day all over the 
Northern and Northeastern part of British India, Burma, Siam, the 
Southern part of French Indo-China, the Malay statesand on various 
isles of the Malay Archipelago. The habitat of this Linnean species lies 
therefore to the West-Southwest and South of China, so that the state- 
ment — quoted by DARWIN — from a Chinese Encyclopaedia, that 
„fowls are creatures of the West and were introduced into China in a 
dynasty 1400 B. C.” is in accordance with this presumption. 
Unfortunately however all other wild species of Gallus with the ex- 
ception of one, also occur West or Southwest of China to wit Gallus son- 
nerati in British India also and Gallus lafayetti on Ceylon, while Gallus 
varius or furcatus alone, occurs South East of China on Islands of the 
Malay-Archipelago to wit on Java and adjacent isles. 
So that, even if one accepts the view that the Chinese received their 
poultry from the West as absolutely reliable, there is still a possibility 
that domestic poultry owes its origin to one of three species to: G. ban- 
Riva, G. sonnerati, G. lafayetti or to hybridization of these. DARWIN is 
adverse to accept a multiple origin of our domestic fowl because (Ani- 
mals and Plants under Domestication, Vol I p. 250/251) „the four 
Genetica V. 1 
