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Show 258 FOWLS. CIIAI'. Y.ll. A ·di g to Mr. Brent, black chickens arc almost invariably black. 0 1°.01 1 n of .., slaty-blue tint; and white Cochm. s occn.sJ· ona1.1 Y• pt.o d uco c 11 •. conRte lls m"" e' from crossm. g and thjs same t .m t appcm . . M · Togctmc10r · · ' . s, as_ r. . 01 : white Dol'lcings w1th black white CochinH wiLh hln.ck Rpamsb. fowls,tl . t firRt-mtc silver-spangled Minorcas.r,g A good ol>sel'Vcr 60 stn.tcs Ht a t .· t'c (lualitics of tho l t tb most cbarac ens J IIamlmrgh l1cn gmdn::tlly· 08t } ce · .LrO a t,.n ers w·,~...,,.. ,ppc•a red ' n.nd her legs breed for tho blrtCk lacmg O l I 't 1 . t mnlcCS tho caSO remarkable ' . t 1 ·to· bn w 1a ,. • . . . changed from 1 n.dcn-blne. o w u ' -for her sister changed m a sJmilar is that this tcn.dcncy mn m tho bloodd, h' 1 ns J)l·odnccd from this latter ' 1 1 .. an c 10 w · but lc. s strongly mar co< manner ' .' "L t on moulting acquired black ben were at fixst [tlmost pnro whtto_,tl J~~ost ohlitcmtcd markings;" so collars and some Apangled fon.the~·s w1 1 1 n. "Jln.ot· Tho skin in tho ditl'erent that a now van.o ty arose m· thI'S SJ ng_u arm.- · 1 .t in common kinds, yellow in broods difl'ers much in col om·~ b?~~gfo~:l~ _e thus mocking, as M. Goclron 61 M n,lays and Cocluns, ~nd_ black m ~ 0 ; sl~ in_ mankind. The same author remarks, the three prmcJpal typo 1 li . m· distant and isolated parts of . · t 1 · d offow · vmg adds, that, as diff l' n ~~1 s d bones this colour must have appeared at tho wor1cl have black s1an an ' various times and plac~iil. 1 b d and the shape of the head differ Tho shape and Cl1l'l'I_agc o:.t ~0 _o rcngth and curvature, but incommuch. Tho beak_ vanes sbght Y m t . ·ted fowls tho nostrils offer a 't} · ns In mos eros . parably Jess than ~ '. 1 p~gco -~ raised with a crescentic outline. Tho remarkable pccubanty m bm g . C "'~ns. in a malo which must have primary wm· g-f'c a tl l?·I ·s arc shorta sm ocw ' ' . 0 banlcivcL, these feathers wore m both been more than twJCo as heavy · t d with M:r Tcgctmeior's aid, tho . 1 1 gth I hn,vo cotm e , · . lnrds of t lC. sn,mo en · ·. hirteen cocks an~ hens of vanous breeds; primary wmg-feathers _m t llamburghs, a Cochin, and Game Bantam, in four of them, ?amcly m two 1 num bcr 9. but in counting these there were 10, mstead of the n~:ma f fanciers a~d have not included the feathers I have ~ollowc~ the ~~0 .'1~0 ~brcc-quai:tcrs of an inch in length. first minute pnmary fca~hcr, ~~~ y relative length the fourth, or the fifth, These feathers ~ITer considcr~~t~ l~ith tho third dither cqun,l to, or conor the sixth, bcmg the lon;ft·h ' I wild gallinaceous species the relative siclcrably . hortor than tho · . n . and tail-feathers arc extremely length n,nd number of tho roam wmg • constant.. . 1 . . tncss and size being small in Malays and very The ta1l d1ffors roue 1m crcc · < ',. • cls which I have cxa- sma1 1 m. Co c 11 m. R. In th·i rteen fowls of v.a uous br· cc1 din in till.s number . d fi e hoo the normal number of 14 fcn,thcr. , me u g d l d rome , v ' . . th . ( · n, Caffro cock Gol -spang e tho two middle sicklc-fen,tlters; SlX o crs VIZ. ' l M 1 ' hen) bad 16; Polish cock, Cochin hen, Sultan ben, Game hen, anc a ay 69 • Cottage Gardener,' Jun. 3rd, 1860, p. 218. d Go Mr. Williams, in a paper rea before 1he Dublin Nat. Hist. oc., quoted in • Cottage Gardener,' 1856, p. 161. 61 • Do l'Espccc,' 1850, p. 442. For tho occurrence of black-boned fowls in South Amcricu, see Roulin, in 'Mcm. do l' A cad. des Sciences,' tom. vi. P· 351; and Azarn,,, Quadrupedes du Paraguay, tom. ii. p. 324. A frizzled fowl sent to me from Madras had black bones. CIIAP. VJI. J~XTERNAL DIFFERENCES. 259 and two (an old Cochin cock and Maln,y hen) had 17 feathers. The rumploss fowl has no tail, and in a bird which I kept alive tho oil-gland bad aborted; !Jut this bird, though tho os coccygis was extremely imperfect, had a vestige of n, tail with two rather long feathers in the position of the outer caudals. Tb5s bird came fr'om a family where, as I was told, tho breed had kept true for twenty years; but rump less fowls often produce chickens with tails.62 An eminent physiologist 63 bn,s recently spoken of this breed as a distinct species ; had ho examined the deformed state of the os coccyx he would never ]Jn,vo como to this conclusion; ho was probably miRlcd by tho stn,tcmcnt, which may be found in some works, that tamess fowls arc wild in Ceylon; but this statement, as I have boon assured by Mr. Layard and Dr. Kcllacrt, who have so closely studied tho birds of Ceylon, is utterly false. Tho tarsi vary considerably in length, being relatively to tho femur considerably longer in the Spanish and Frizzled, and shorter in tho Silk and Bantam breeds, th::tn in tho wild 0. banlciva; but in the latter, as we have seen, the tarsi vary in length. Tho tarsi arc often fen,thcrcd. Tho feet in many breeds arc furnished with additionn,l toes. Golden-spangled Polish fowls arc said 64 to have the skin between their toes much developed; Mr. Tegctmcicr observed this in one bird, but it was not so in one which I cxn,minccl.. In Cocbins tho middle too is said 65 to bo nearly double the length of tho lateral toes, and therefore much longer than in G. bankiva or in other iowlA; but this was not the case in two which I examined. Tho nail of tho middle toe in this same breed is surprisingly broad and flat, but in a variable degree in two bil-ds which I examined; of this structure in the nail there is only a trace in a. b~tnlciva. Tho voice differs slightly, as I am informed by Mr. Dixon, in almost every breed. Tho Malays 66 have n, loud, deep, somewhat prolonged crow, but with considerable individual clifforonccs. Colonel Sykes remarks that tho domestic Kulm cock in India has not tho shrill clear pipe of tho Engli h bird, n,nd "his scale of notes appears more limited." Dr. Hooker was struck with tho "prolonged howling screech" of the cocks in Sikhim. 67 Tho crow of tho Cochin is notoriously and ludicrously different from that of the common cock. Tho disposition of the different breeds is widely different, varying from the s~vago and defiant temper of the Game-cock to tho extremely peaceable temper of tho Cocbin. The latter, it has been asserted, "graze ton, much greater extent than any other varieties." Tho Spn,nish fowls suffer more fr·om fr·ost thn,n other breeds. Before we pass on to the skeleton, the degree of distinctness of the several breeds from G. banlciva ought to bo noticed. Some 62 Mr.llcwitt, in Tcgetmcicr's' Poultry Book,' lSGG, p. 231. 63 Dr. Bwca, in Brown-Scquard's 'Journal do Puys.,' tom. ii. p. 361. 64 Dixon's ' Ornamental Poultry,' p. 325. 65 ' Poultry Chronicle,' vol. i. p. 485. Tcgctmcicr's ' Poultry Book,' 1866, p. 41. On Cochins grazing, idem, p. 46. 66 :Ferguson on 'Prize Poultry,' p .. 187. 67 Col. Sykes in' Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,' 1832, p. 151. Dr. Hooker's ' Himalayan Journals,' vol. i. p. 314. s 2 |