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walk, and hurrying through the cover by a circuitous route, so as to intercept them; but this requires a certain tact. The slightest stir, and often the keenness of the bird's sight, for they come slowly and look well around, as they strut, and flap their wings and challenge, are enough to discover the sportsman, when the crowing ceases, and they are off at a hopeless. rate." He adds, "these birds are the aboriginal cock and hen, but neither their cry nor their plumage is that of the domestic fowl."

The capture of these birds, and also of other animals, is carried on by natives of a low caste, who gain a livelihood by this despised occupation. Johnson, in his "Sketches of Field Sports, as followed by the natives of India," informs us that "two or three of these men go for that purpose together, and proceed in this manner. A line of thirty or forty yards long is fastened to the ground with wooden pegs at each extremity, and is then elevated by props to the height of about eighteen inches. To this line nooses of horse hair are fastened at distances of about two feet from each other, and when the birds attempt to pass under the line, they are caught in the nooses by their necks. Sometimes a similar

line is fastened to the ground and left lying there, with all the nooses spread, and as the birds pass over them they are caught by the legs. These lines are never spread where there is much jungle. When the line or lines are ready, the men go off to a considerable distance and beat the bushes in a direction towards them."

We may here allude to some other species of jungle-fowl, as the fork-tailed cock of Java, (Gallus furcatus-Temm.) which has the throat adorned with only a single large wattle, springing from the centre, and the bronzed cock of Sumatra, (Gallus æneus,) which has a large comb, smooth along the ridge, and destitute of serrations. Neither of these birds has true hackles on the neck.

Another species is the fire-backed pheasant, (Euplocamus ignitus-Temm.) This is a large species, standing high on the legs, with full crest on the head, and short feathers on the neck. The tail of the cock is folded as usual, but the first two feathers instead of being long, slender, and bending down, .scarcely exceed the rest, are broad, and just curved, reminding us of the tail of a high-bred bantam-cock, of sir John Sebright's spangled breed. General

plumage black, with reflections of steel blue, lower part of the back bright red, extending thence, like a zone round the body; the middle tail feathers white, the rest black, with green reflections; legs, vermilion red; female, brown. This splendid bird is a native of Sumatra.

With respect to the last three species, we believe that our naturalists regard them as having contributed to the domestic fowl; indeed, with respect to the fire-backed pheasant, this species represents a form distinct from that of the true jungle-fowls, and must, therefore, be considered out of the question.

It is then, to the three preceding species that we must look. That the Kulm fowl of the Dukhun, and the gigantic Malay fowl, are identical we believe is generally admitted, and the breed appears to be more extensively spread in a domestic state than is supposed. In the proceedings of the Zoological Society, for 1835, p. 92, we have the following notice relative to some Herat fowls presented to the society by Keith E. Abbott, Esq.-These were a cock and two hens of the fowls of Herat, in Khorassaun, a breed which Mr. Abbott believes is unknown in Europe. They are young birds, of the real Herat race. These, it was stated,

(at the meeting) were apparently identical with. the Kulm fowl of Dukhun, and the Malay fowl, the Gallus giganteus-Temm.

Here then we have a domestic race, traceable to an aboriginal stock; and though it is not of general distribution, still, in all probability, it has at some time or other crossed with a breed from one of the smaller jungle-fowls, and thereby contributed to the increase of stature. That the Bankiva jungle-fowl of Java, or its larger continental variety, if it be not a distinct species, (and of which sir W. Jardine states that he has seen several specimens,) is one of the sources of our domestic breeds, cannot, we think, be for a moment doubted. It would be difficult to discover any difference between a clean-limbed blackbreasted red bantam-cock, and a cock Bankiva jungle-fowl. Indeed, the very term bantam goes far to prove their specific identity: Bantam is a town or city at the bottom of a bay on the northern coast of Java; it was first visited by the Portuguese, in 1511, at which time a great trade was carried on by the town with Arabia, Hindostan, and China; chiefly in pepper. Subsequently it fell into the hands of the Dutch, and was at one time the great rendezvous for

European shipping. It is now a place of comparative insignificance.

From this it would seem that the junglefowls domesticated and sold to the Europeans at Bantam, continued to be designated by the name of the place where they were obtained, and in process of time the name was appropriated to all our dwarfish breeds.

Among the birds forming the collection in the Chinese museum, exhibited for some years at Hyde Park Corner, are specimens of the Bankiva jungle-fowl; of the species indigenous in China, in a wild state, its range is more extensive than naturalists are aware of; it is, however, not improbable, that the specimens were imported into Canton from Java, and there sold with other specimens, some indigenous, others from Malacca, to the proprietor of the museum. We are the more confirmed in this opinion, because we find the argus pheasant, a native of Malacca, Sumatra, etc. in the same collection.

With respect to Sonnerat's jungle-fowl, the ordinary jungle-fowl of continental India, though the traveller whose name it bears regarded it as the stock whence our domestic races sprung, we cannot say that such is our

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