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Show CruJ'. Vll. 234 FOWLS. . Cliffi ·s greatly from the common in any domestic breed. Is 'rltis spocJCS also d . OI~hc loins being dostitnto of fowl, in tllO omh hein.g ii~oly SOl:rato~, ~~nt~n Jt crosses l'Cndily i~ India true hackles. ]ts vmcc IS utterly <l;lffet? l nearly 100 hybrid chwkem;; 1 M.r Blyth 4 rn.1HCC , 1 . 1 . with domestic ]tens; am . Cliod whilst young. •rhosc w llC t wcl c bllt they were tender and.1 mol. tlny c ro ·so d . t ' I' "<' or with cit] lOr parent. At ~~~ ( ,, reared were n.bsolntcly stcn c w ~~ , h brids of the same parc~1tagc wore the Zo logical Gardens, however, so~cf. y .1 me made with Mr. Yarroll's . M n· ·on ashern ormcu ' ' ' t f "0 not quite o ster!lc: .. r. 1X '. ' uu·ect, and was asrmrcd tha.t on o .J. aid particular mqumcs on th1s s J . d Some however, of tl1cse lmlf- ' ' . . 1 . kens were roarc . ' 11 t eggs only ftvc or filX cue . of their parents, namely, a an am, br d birds were cro. sed with one 1 . 1 . s Mr D1xon also procured f. . t ·cmcly feeble c uc con. . . ,, t 11 and produc d a ow c~ r . . d them in several ways, ou a wore some of tho ·e Ramo hHds and cr~ss~l . experiments have recently been more or less infertile. Nearly Slffil .arl Gardens with almost tho Ramo tried on a great R. ca 1o m· the . Zodo lof' g.i Ca ari' ons first cro cs and 11 Y1 ·· l· )II( s, 0 t f '-00 cggR ra1SC rom v . 1 c d resnlt.M u o u .. . , ' . . d vn?·ius, only 12 clue wns w r r ar ' between ({. SonneratM' brmkwc£, an . l t of hybrids illter sc. From theHc and of thc.·c only three wore tl~o prdo(·tu~ o·ly-mal'kccl diffcTenccs in Rtruc.- facts, and from tl1 0 a bov.c - m. cntwndc 0 R ISOonnn, eratii, we may reJ. ect tlu .s 1a tte r turc between the domestic f~~vl a~t· bl~ocd Species as the parent of any uomos 11? t .the J·sland viz. G. Stcm/e?;ii; f · l pCC1Uar 0 ' ' ' Ceylon posR sscs a ow t ·n the colouring of the comb) to this RI ccics approaches so closc1y' ( eL•xcep .d and Kcllacrt tu would have con- the domesti.C r·o w 1' .t l 1a t Me ·s1·s · E. ayoafr the .1 • t be 11arcnt-stocks, hau 1t no en sidcred 1·t , , as tl1 c y m. f.o rm roo '. as o'nrel ·s bird like the last, crosses rcaC~t i'1 Y . . ·1 ·1 different voice. u ' . tl •r for 1ts smgu ar Y .. t l'tary farms and Tav1shes 1om. wo with h and even VJS1 s so 1 ' Mr Mit£ d to t. ame ens, h . duccd were found by ·. or 1 nd female t us pro ' . . Th' hyhrids, a rna o a . '·t d tl peculiar voice of a. /"it({nll·y~~. JS be qm·t o s t en·1 c .· bo. th mhen. ue bili1t0 be Tc· jectcd as one of the pnm· ii·Vt· O species, then, may 1~ all pro a y stocks of the clomcstJC fowl. t d "S far· as Flores arc inhabited hy G. · 1 ds cas war "' ' Java and tho 1S an . diff . . so many characters-green plumage, vrrrias (or JanalltH ), :Vln~h l orsl:i~n, va'tlc- that no one upposcs it to b d sJl1g c roc( an ' • l • unscrrated com ' an '. one of our breeds; yet, as] am informed by have hecn tho parent. of any ly rai eel between the malo 0. varius Mr C f ·d 17 hybnds arc common b t . ·. raw ur ' . and are kept for theiT great beauty, u a~e and the common he~, not the case with some bred m . bl t ·lo. this however, was 1 to invarm y sen ' ' Th h brids wore at one time thoug lt tho zoological Gardens. ese Y -------- n I have oxn.mincd the fcalh rs. of some ltybridl:l rni~cd in the Zoolog:cal Gartl lll:l butwcon the male G. Sonrter( ttii and n. rod gn.mc-llcn, and thc~c lea lher;; cxh illi ted tho true character of those of G. SonMralii, xc pt that the horny laminoo were much smaller. 14 See also n.n excellent letter on tl~o Poultry of India, by Mr. Blyth, m • G ardencr's Chroni ·lc,' 1851, P· 619 .. 1r. Mr. S. J. Sn.ltcr, in 'Naluml HIS· tory Rcvi •w,' .April, 18G3, p. 276. . lB See also Mr. Layanl's paper 1~ , Annals and Mn.g. of Nat. lll:>lory, 2n<.l:;urie:;, vol. xiv. P· G2. . 11 See also Mr. Crawfurd's 'D~scn~ti ve Diet. of the Indin.n Islanus, 185G, p. 113. CIIAP. VII. TIIEIR PARENTAGE. 235 be specifically distinct, and were named a. ameus. Mr. Blyth and others believe that the U. J'cm.m'iuclcii,lB (of which tho history is not known) is a similar hybrid. Sir J. Brooke sent me some skins of domeRtic fowls from Bomco, and acrosR the tail of one of these, as 1\fr. Tegetmcicr observed, there were transvcrRc blue band.· like those which he had seen on the tailfeathers of hyhridR from 0. varius, reared in tho Zoological Gardens. This fact apparently indicates that some of the fowls of Borneo have been slightly affected hy crosses with 0. l1(£1'i,s, hut tho case may possibly he one of analogous variation. I may just allude to tho G. ,r;iga1•teus, so often referred to in works on poultry as a wild Rpccics; but Mar. ·dcn,19 the first describer, speaks of it as a tame bt·ecd; and tho Rpccimen in tho British Museum evidently has the a. poet of a domestic va1·iety. 'l'.hc last species to be mentioned, namely, Gallus banlciva, has a much wider geographical range than tho three prcviou. species ; it inhabits Northern India as far west as Sindc, and ascends the Himalaya to a height of 4000 ft.; it inhabits Burmah, the Malay peninsula, the Indo-Chinese co1mtrics, tho Philippine IslanclR, and the Malayan archipelago as far eastward as Timor. This species varies considerably in tho wild state. Mr. Blyth informs me that the specimens, both malo and female, lJrought from ncar tho Ilimalaya, arc rathc1· paler coloured than those from other parts of India; whilst those from the Malay peninsula ani Java arc brighter coloured than the Indian birds. I have seen specimens from these countricR, and tho difference of tint in the hackles was conspicuous. Tho Malayan hens were a shade redder on the breast and neck titan the Indian hens. The Mal11yan males generally had a red car-lappet, instead of a white one as in India; but Mr. Blyth has seen one Indian specimen without tl1o white car-lappet. Tho legs arc leaden blue in the Indian, whereas they show some tendency to be yellowish in the Malayan and Javan specimens. In the former Mr. Blyth finds tho tarsuR remarkahly variable in length. According to Tcmminck20 the 'fimor specimens differ as a local race from that of Java. Those several wild varieties have not as yet been ranked as distinct species; if they should, as is not unlikely, bo hereafter thus ranked, the circum. ·tan co would be quite immaterial as far as the parentage and differences of om· domestic breeds arc concerned. The wild G. bnnlcivu agrees most closely with tho blackbreasted red Game-breed, in colouring and in all other respects, except in being smaller, and in the tail being carried more horizontally. But tho manner in which the tail is carried is highly variable in many of our broods, for, as Mr. Brent informs me, the tail slopes much in the Malays, is erect in tho Games and some other breeds, and is more than erect in Dorkings, Bantams, &c. There is one other difference, namely, that in G. uunlciva, according to MT. Blyth, tho ncck-ho.cklcs when fiTst moulted arc replaced during two or three months, not by other 1s Dc.;cribcd by Mr. G. R. Gray, ' Proc. Zoolog. 'oc.,' 18·.1:9, p. 62. IU The pa~>sage from M::usden is given by Mr. Dixon in his • PoulLry Book,' p. 176. No ornithologist now ranks tltis bird as a distinct species. 2o Uonp-d'wil general sur l'Indc Archipclagiquo,' tom. iii. (1849), p. 177; see also Mr. lllyLh in ' Indian Sporting Review,' vol. ii. p. 5, 1856. |