chestnut, with the webs of the feathers disunited; greater coverts, steel-blue; secondaries, also steel-blue, with a border of chestnut. The quills are brownishblack, edged with pale reddish-yellow. Tail black, glossed with changeable green and blue. Breast and under parts black. Contour very graceful, and every action animated and lively.

With regard to the Bankiva jungle fowl, it cannot be doubted that it is the main source, if not the only one, of our Bantam breeds. The very term "Bantam❞ is sufficient to establish the fact. Bantam is the name of a town and district in the northwest of Java, belonging at present to the Dutch. The town is now fallen into decay, but was formerly a place of great importance, and still boasts of a governor, whose residence is at Sirang, or Ceram, a thriving town some miles inland. The Portuguese, who visited Java, in 1511, carried on a great trade from Bantam with Hindoostan and China, chiefly in pepper. In 1595, the Dutch established themselves at Bantam, and in 1602, the English erected a factory in the same place, which was the first possession of the English in the East Indies. Of the subsequent predominance of the power of the Dutch, who built the town of Batavia, not far distant from Bantam, this is not the place to speak. From this statement, however, it is evident that the beautiful Bankiva jungle fowls, reclaimed by the natives, and sold to the British, at Bantam, while their factory was established there, were imported into England under the very natural appellation of Bantam fowls. Their elegance and diminutive size rendered them favorites, and in due time the name, belonging exclusively to these birds, came to be conferred on all small or dwarf fowls indiscriminately, whether of this pure breed or otherwise. The domestic Bantam stock, as every one knows, breeds freely with ordinary fowls, the mixed offspring being intermediate in size between their parents; and that the Bankiva jungle fowl will breed with our domestic Bantam race, and with other

races, the progeny being fertile, as has been fully proved. Such birds are common in the gardens of the London Zoological Society, and so closely do the offspring of the Bankiva jungle cock and a brown domestic Bantam hen resemble the wild, or original breed, that on more than one occasion have the best of judges been in doubt; nor is this to be wondered at-as on both sides was the lineage the same.

SYNONYMES.-Gallus sonneratti, of Temminck; Rahn Komrah, of the Mahrattas; Coq sauvage, of Sonnerat; Jungle Cock, of the British Sportsmen in India; Sonnerat's Jungle Fowl, Stanley's Jungle Fowl, of the English and Anglo-Americans.

The size of the male of this species is intermediate between that of the Bantam and game cock; but the general contour is peculiarly light and graceful, and vigor and alertness are displayed in every action. The comb is large, with a sub-serrated ridge, that is, the ridge is but slightly dentated, in comparison with the comb of the Bankiva. The wattles are large and double. The hackles of the neck, the wing coverts on the shoulders, and the tail coverts are dark-greyish, with bright golden orange shafts, dilating in the centre

and towards the tip into a flat, horny, and very glossy plate. In some of these feathers, the shaft takes an elliptical or oar-like shape, in others it puts on the appearance of a long inverted cone, from the centre of the base of which a battledore-like process arises. The effect produced by this expansion of the shafts is at once singular and exquisitely beautiful. The feathers of the middle of the back, breast, belly, and thighs, are of a deep rich grey, with paler shafts and edges. The tail is of a deep, rich, refulgent green, but the feathers which immediately succeed the hackles of the lower part of the back, and lie against the sides of the tail, are rich purple with a pale-yellow edge; those next in succession are golden-green, with grey edges, and all are glossed with brilliant metallic reflections; bill, legs, and toes yellowish. When seen in a bright sunlight, the plumage of this elegant bird glitters like gold, and presents a most rich appearance.

The female is generally described as destitute of those expanded ornaments to the hackles and wing coverts, which are so conspicuous in the male. She is less than the cock by about a third, without comb or wattles, but a trace of nakedness round the eye. Plumage without the horny structure which distinguishes that of the male. Upper parts uniform brown; neck feathers with dark edges; those of the back and wing coverts with a pale streak along the shaft; and those of the wings, tail coverts, and tail, waved and mottied with darker pencillings; throat and front of the neck white; feathers of the rest of the lower parts greyish-white, edged with dark-brown; legs bluish

grey.

Under the term "Sonnerat's jungle fowl," two species of jungle fowl appear to have been confounded together—at least, by most naturalists—although there can be no doubt of their real distinctness. Colonel Sykes, speaking in reference to the Gallus sonneratii, says: "Very abundant in the woods of the Western Ghauts, where there are either two species, or two

very strongly marked varieties. In the valleys, at 2,000 feet above the sea, Sonnerat's species is found. slender, standing high on the legs, and with the yellow cartilaginous spots on the feathers even in the female. In the belts of wood on the sides of the mountains, at 4,000 feet above the sea, there is a short-legged variety. The male has a great deal of red in his plumage, which Sonnerat's has not; the female is of a reddish-brown color, and is without cartilaginous spots at all."

Sonnerat's jungle fowl, the jungle cock of the British, is noted for its prowess and resolution, insomuch that it is anxiously sought after by the cock fighters in Hindoostan, who rely on it for victory when pitted against larger game cocks. It does not appear, however, that the Mussulman cock fighters breed this bird in its purity; they seek after the wild birds, which soon become tame.

In general habits and manners, the jungle fowl resemble their domestic relatives; the cock proudly leads his train of females, and vigilantly watches over their safety. On being suddenly disturbed the troop scatters in all directions, seeking safety under covert of the dense brushwood. In spots where they are numerous, the challenging of the cocks to each other may be heard on every side around, and yet such is their cunning, and keenness of sight, that the sportsman, unless he is well acquainted with their habits, is often disappointed in his attempts to get a fair shot.

Sonnerat and many other naturalists have contended, that, to this species alone are our breeds of domestic fowls to be traced. Most probable, notwithstanding the peculiarity of the plumage, and the circumstance of the throat of the female being covered with feathers, instead of being naked and wattled, it has intermingled with other breeds, or contributed to improve themand among them may be enumerated the high-spirited game fowls kept for fighting by the Mussulmans of India, and which have been long celebrated; but it cannot be admitted that Sonnerat's jungle fowl is the

sole origin of the domestic race. The Bankiva and the great Malay present stronger claims to our notice, nor can we doubt they contribute the groundwork of some of our most remarkable varieties. Those writers, who, by a pleasant legerdemain, so easily transform one of the wild Indian cocks into a barn-door fowl-who put the jungle cock, the Bankiva cock, or the gigantic jago bird under a bushel, hocus pocus a little, lift up the cover, and then exhibit a veritable chanticleer-write as if they had only to catch a wild bird in the woods, turn it into the yard for three or four weeks, and make it straightway become as tame as a spaniel. On such a notion comment is now supererogatory.

There are several other species of jungle fowl, to which I shall here only briefly allude, as they are not likely to have contributed to the establishment of the domestic race. One of these is the "bronzed cock" of Sumatra, (Gallus ænus,) a fine species, remarkable for a large comb, smooth along the ridge. The neck is not covered with true hackles. Another is the Ayam-alas jungle fowl or fork-tailed cock of Java (Gallus furcatus). This species has no true hackles on the neck, and the throat is adorned with a single large wattle only, springing from a central line. An intermediate form between the genera phasianus and gallus, is presented by the fire-backed pheasant of Sumatra (Euplocamus ignitus). It is a very splendid bird, and might perhaps be domesticated.

So much, then, for the remote history of the domestic fowl, as far as obscure hints, notices, or delineations enable us to decipher it; and it has been shown to what wild species its origin is, in all probability, to be attributed. It is evidently the oldest, and perhaps the most important of man's acquisitions from among the feathered tribes, its flesh and its eggs being in all countries regarded partiy as delicacies always acceptable, and partly as staple articles of food, at once nutritious and digestible. That a bird which has passed in a