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capable of running about, and following their parent; they pick up their food, to which the mother conducts them, without having to be fed like the young of the finches and warblers in their snug nests, till they acquire the power of flitting about. They repose at night huddled up beneath their parent's wings.

The males of the species composing the present group are extremely pugnacious, and will often fight with each other to the death of one of the rivals. The game-cock, the jungle-cock, the pheasant, and the quail, are notorious for their combative propensities. The females are devoted to their broods, and lose all sense of personal danger in their defence; a hen will fly boldly in the face of a dog, and even the timid partridge will fight for its young. Mr. Selby records an instance in which a pair of partridges (for these birds are not polygamous) attacked a crow which had attempted to seize one of their brood; they fought not only courageously but successfully, for they actually fastened upon and held their sable adversary; and so absorbed were they in the strife, that they persisted in their hold till the spectator of the combat came to their aid, and seized upon the mis

creant. Upon search, the young birds were found concealed in the grass around the scene of action. Of none of the gallinaceous birds is the flesh unfit for food. That of many is a delicacy, and at the same time highly nutritive and easily digestible. Pheasants, partridges, quails, and grouse need no recommendation.

THE COMMON FOWL.

The common fowl, (Gallus domesticusRay.*) This valuable domestic bird, of which the varieties are extremely numerous, is doubtless derived from some of the wild or jungle fowls of India, and is, perhaps, crossed by more than one species. At what period, or by what people the wild jungle-fowl was reclaimed and brought to become a pensioner on the bounty of man, we have no means of ascertaining.

* In the restricted genus, (Gallus) the head is ornamented in the male, and generally in the female, with a naked comb, single in the jungle-fowls and game domestic races, but in many domestic breeds double, or spread in a rose shape. Wattles, two. Spurs in the male. The tail consists of fourteen feathers, forming two vertical planes, making what is called a folded tail. In the male, the middle feathers are the longest, and fall over the others in a graceful arch. In some domestic breeds, the comb is small, and the top of the head elegantly plumed with a tuft of feathers.

But as the writers of antiquity speak of it as a bird long domesticated in their days, and extensively spread, we may justly conclude that its subjugation ranks amongst the remote of man's peaceful conquests over the animal kingdom. Its domestication was probably first achieved in India, while, at the same time, in Malay, another species known as the Malay gigantic fowl, might have been also subjugated, and from these points distinct races, soon intermingling together, might have radiated.

may

And here, perhaps, we may be permitted to take a review of the wild birds or species which have contributed to the domestic varieties. 1st. The Malay gigantic fowl, (Gallus giganteus-Temminck.) This large and very remarkable species is a native of Java and Sumatra. The male bird in its natural attitude exceeds two feet in height, measuring from the top of the head to the ground. The comb is thick, and low, and destitute of serrations, appearing as if it had been partially cut off, the wattles are small, and the throat is bare. The neck is covered with elongated feathers or hackles, of a pale golden reddish colour, which advance upon the back, and

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hackles of the same colour cover the rump, and drop on each side of the base of the tail. The middle of the back and the shoulders of the wings are of a dark chestnut, the feathers being of a loose texture. The greater wing coverts are of a glossy green, and form a bar of that colour across the wing. The primary and secondary quill feathers are yellowish, with a tinge of rufous. The tail feathers are of a glossy green. The under surface uniformly is of a glossy blackish green, but the base of each feather is a chestnut, and this colour appears on the least derangement of the plumage. The limbs are remarkably stout, and the robust tarsi are of a yellow colour. The voice is a sort of crow-hoarse and short, and very different from the clear notes of defiance uttered by our farmyard chanticleer. This species has the habit, when fatigued, of resting on the tarsi or legs, as we have seen the emu do under similar circumstances.

In some parts of continental India, this bird is domesticated, and is known to Europeans under the name of the Kulm Cock. In the proceedings of the Zool. Soc. for 1832, p. 151, we find the following notice respecting it by colonel Sykes, who observed it domesti

cated in the Dukhun (Deccan.)

"Gallus gi

ganteus, Temm.; Gall. Ind. 633: known by the name of the Kulm Cock by Europeans in India. Met with only as a domestic bird; and colonel Sykes has reason to believe that it is not a native of India, but has been introduced by the Mussulmans from Sumatra or Java. The iris of the real game-bird should be whitish or straw yellow. Colonel Sykes landed two cocks and a hen in England, in June, 1831. They bore the winter well; the hen laid freely, and has reared two broods of chickens. The cock has not the shrill clear pipe of the domestic bird, and his scale of notes appears more limited. A cock in the possession of colonel Sykes, stood twenty-six inches high to the crown of the head; but they attain a greater height. Length from the tip of the bill to the insertion of the tail, twenty-three inches, Hen, one-third smaller than the male. Shaw very justly describes the habit of the cock, of resting when tired on the first joint of the leg."

Within the last few years, other examples of this giant race have been brought to England, and we believe that the breed is kept up in the royal aviary at Windsor. The various

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