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Show 254 FOWLS. CIIAl', VII. together it forms a "cup-comb;" in the "rose-comb" it is depressed, covered with small projections, and produced b~ckwards; in tho horn d and creve-coour fowl it is produced mto two horns ; it is triple in the pea- ombed Brahmas, short and truncated in tho Malays, and absent in the Guelderlands. In the tasselled 0 arne a few long feathers arise from the back of the comb; in many breeds a crest of fea~hers replaces the comb. The crest when little developed, anses from a fleshy mass, but, when 'mur.h developed, from a hemispherical protuberance of the skull. In the best Polish fowls it is so largely dAveloped, that I have seen bi.J:ds which could hardly. pick up their food; and a German writer asserts b 2 that they are m consequence liable to be struck by hawks. Monstrous structures of this kind would thus be suppressed in a state of nature. The wattles, also, vary much in size, being small in Malays and some other breeds ; they are replaced in certain Polish subbreeds by a great tuft of feathers called a beard. The hackles do not differ much in the various breeds, but are short and stiff in Malays, and absent in Hennies. As in some orders of birds the males display extraordinarily-shaped feathers, such as naked shafts with discs at the end, &c., the followinO' case may bo worth giving. In the wild Gallus banlciva and in our domestic fowls, the barbs which arise from each side of the extremities of the hackles are naked or not clothed with barbules, so that they resemble bristles; but Mr. Brent sent me some scapula.r hackles from a young Birchen Duckwing Game cock, in which the naked barbs became densely reclothed with barbules towards their tips; so that these tips, which were dark coloured with a metallic lustre, were separated from the lower parts by a symmetrically-shaped transparent zone formed of the naked portions of the barbs. Hence the coloured tips appeared like little separate metallic discs. The sickle-feathers in the tail, of which there are three pair, and which are eminently characteristic of the male sex, differ much in the various breeds. They are scimitar-shaped in some Hamburghs, instead of being long and flowing as in the typical breeds. They are extremely short in Cochins, and are not at s~ ' Dio Hiihner und Pfo.uonzuoht,' 1827, s. 11. CuAP. VII. SEXUAL DIFFERENCES. 255 all developed in Hennies. They are carried, together with the whole tail, erect in Dorkings and Games; but droop much in Mal.a!s and in some Cochins. Sultans are characterized by an additJOna.~ number of .lateral sickle-feathers. The spurs vary much, bemg placed higher or lower on the shank; being extremely long and sharp in Games, and blunt and short in Cochins.. These latter birds seem aware that their spurs are not efficiCnt weapons ; for though they occasionally use them, the! more ~r~quently fight, as I am informed by Mr. Tcgetmewr, by smzmg and shaking each other with their beaks. In some Indian Gam_e-cocks, received by Mr. Brent from Germany, there are, as he mfor~s me, three, four, or even five spurs on each. leg: Some .Dorkmgs also have two spurs on each leg; 53 and ~n buds of this breed the spur is often placed almost on the out.side of the leg. Double spurs are mentioned in the ancient Clunese Encyclopoodia. Their occurrence may be considered as a case of analogous variation, for some wild gallinaceous birds for iustance, the Polyplectron, have double spurs. ' Jud~ing fi:om t~e differences which generally distinguish the sexes m the Gallmaceoo, certain characters in our domestic fowls appear to have been transferred from the one sex to the other. In all the species (except in Turnix) when there · . ' IS any conspicuous difference in plumage between the male and female, the male is always the most beautiful; but in goldenspan~ led Hamburghs the ben is equally beautiful with the cock, and .mcomparably more beautiful than the hen in any natural speCies of Gallus; so that here a masculine character has been trans.fened to the female. On the other hand, in cuckoo Dorkings and m othe.r cuckoo breeds the pencilling, which in Gallus is a fe~a~e attnbute, has been transferred to the male: nor, on the prmCiple of a~alogous variation, is this transference surprising, a~ the ma~es m many gallinaceous genera are barred or pencilled. vV~th most of these birds head ornaments of all kinds ~re m?re fully developed in the male than in the female ; but In Pohsh f~wls the crest or top-knot, which in the male replaces the comb, IS equally developed in both sexes. In certain sub- 53 'Poultry Chronicle,' vol. i p. 595. Mr. Brent has informed me of the same fact. With respect to the position of the spurs in Dorkings, see 'Cottage Gardener,' Sept. 18th, 1860, p. 380. |