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Show 246 FOWLS. CHAP. VII. :M:alayan or Indian variety . of G. banlciva. If so, this species has varied greatly since it was first domesticated; but there has been ample time, as we hall now show. History of the Fowl.-lliitimeyer found no remains of the fowl in the ancient Swi s lake-dwellings. It is not mentioned in tho Old rrestament; nor is it figured on the ancient Egy1 tian monnments. 33 It is not referred to by H~mer or He~iod (about 900 B.c.); but is mentioned by Theogms and Anstophanes between 400 and 500 B.C. It is figured on some of the Babylonian cylind rs, of which l\1r. Layard sent me an impression, between the sixth and seventh centuries B.C. ; and on the Harpy Tomb in Lycia, about 600 B.C. : so that we may feel pretty confident that the fowl reached Europe somewhere near the sixth century B.C. It had travelled still farther westward by the time of tho Christian era, for it was found in Britain by Julius Crosar. In India it must have been domesticated when the Institutes of Manu were written, that is, according to Sir W. Jones, 1200 B.C., but, according to the later authority of :M:r. H. Wilson, only 800 B.C., for the domestic fowl is forbidden, whilst the wild is permitted to be eaten. If, as before remarked, we may trust the old Chinese Encyclopmdia, the fowl must have been domesticated several centuries earlier, as it is said to have been introduced from the West into China 1400 B.C. Sufficient materials do not exist for tracing the history of the separate breeds. About the commencement of the Christian era, 33 Dr. Pickering, in his 'Races of Man,' 1850, p. 374, says that the h ad and neck of a fowl is carried in a 'l'ribute-proeossion to 'l'houtmousis Ill. (1445 n.o.); bnt Mr. Birch of tho British Museum donbts whether th figure c11n be identified as the head of a fowl. Somg caution is necessary with reference to the absence of figures of tho fowl 011 tho ancient Egypti11n monuments, on account of tho strong and widely prevalent prejudice against this bird. I am informed by the Rev. S. Erhardt that on tho east coast of Africa, from 4° to 6° south of the quator, most of the pagan tribes at the present day hold the fowl in aversion. 'l'he natives of the Pollew Islands would not eat the fow 1, nor will the In lians in some purts of S. America. For the ancient history of the fowl, see also Vol z, • Bci tmge zur C ulturgoschich to,' 1852, s. 77 ; and lsid. G offroy St. Hilaire,' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. iii. p. 61. Mr. Crawfunl has given an admir· able history of the fowl in lli~ paper • On tho Relation of Domesticated Animals to Civilisation,' road before tb.e Brit. Assoc. at Oxford in 1860, and since printed separately. I quote from him on tho Greek poet Thoogni , und on tho Harpy Tomb described by Sir C. F cllowes. I quote from a letter of l\ir. Blyth's with respect to the Institutes of 1\fanu. CllAP, VII. TIIEIR IIISTORY. 247 Columella mentions a five-toed fighting breed, and some provincial breeds ; but we know nothing more about them. He also alludes to dwarf fowls; but the e cannot have been the same with our Bantams, which, as Mr. Crawfurd has shown, were imported from Japan into Bantam in Java. A dwarf fowl, probably the true Bantam, is referred to in an old Japanese EncycJoprodia, as I am informed by Mr. Birch. In the Chinese Encyclopredia published in 1596, but compiled from various sources, some of high antiquity, seven breeds are mentioned, including what we should now call jumpers or creepers, and likewise fowls with black feathers, bones, and flesh. In 1600 Aldrovandi describes seven or eight breeds of fowls, and this is the most ancient record from which the age of our European breeds can be inferred. 1'he Gallus Turcicus certainly seems to be a pencilled Hamburgh; but Mr. Brent, a most capable judge, thinks that Aldrovandi "evidently figured what he happened to see, and not the best of the breed." Mr. Brent, indeed, considers all Alclrovandi's fowls as of impure breed; but it is a far more probable view that all our breeds since his time have been much improved and modified ; for, as he went to the expense of so many figures, he probably would have secured characteristic specimens. The Silk fowl, however, probably then existed in its present state, as did almost certainly the fowl with frizzled or reversed feathers. :M:r. Dixon 34 considers Aldrovandi's Paduan fowl as "a variety of the Polish," whereas :M:r. Brent believes it to have been more nearly allied to the :M:alay. The anatomical peculiarities of the skull of the Polish breed were noticed by P. Borelli in 1656. I may add that in 1737 one Polish sub-breed, viz. the golden spangled, was known; but judging from Albin's description, the comb was then larger, the crest of feathers much smaller, the breast more coarsely spotted, and the stomach and thighs much blacker: a golden-spangled Polish fowl in this condition would now be of no value. JJijferences in External and Internal Structure between tlte 3' 'Ornamental and Domestic Poultry,' 1847, p. 185; for passages translated from Columella, see p. 312. For Golden Ham burghs, see Albin's 'Natural History of Birds,' 3 vols., with plates, 1731·38. |