e domestic breed of Pegu is
undistinguishable from the hen of the wild _G. bankiva_; and the
natives constantly catch wild cocks by taking tame cocks to fight with
them in the woods.[383] Mr. Crawfurd remarks that from etymology it
might be argued that the fowl was first domesticated by the Malays and
Javanese.[384] It is also a curious fact, of which I have been assured
by Mr. Blyth, that wild specimens of the _Gallus bankiva_, brought from
the countries east of the Bay of Bengal, are far more easily tamed than
those of India; nor is this an unparalleled fact, for, as Humboldt long
ago remarked, the same species sometimes evinces a more tameable
disposition in one country than in another. If we suppose that the _G.
bankiva_ was first tamed in Malaya and afterwards imported into India,
we can understand an observation made to me by Mr. Blyth, that the
domestic fowls of India do not resemble the wild _G. bankiva_ more
closely than do those of Europe.

From the extremely close resemblance in colour, general structure, and
especially in voice, between _Gallus bankiva_ and the Game fowl; from their
fertility, as far as this has been ascertained, when crossed; from the
possibility of the wild species being tamed, and from its varying in the
wild state, we may confidently look at it as the parent of the most typical
of all the {237} domestic breeds, namely, the Game-fowl. It is a
significant fact, that almost all the naturalists in India, namely, Sir W.
Elliot, Mr. S. N. Ward, Mr. Layard, Mr. J. C. Jerdon, and Mr. Blyth,[385]
who are familiar with _G. bankiva_, believe that it is the parent of most
or all our domestic breeds. But even if it be admitted that _G. bankiva_ is
the parent of the Game breed, yet it may be urged that other wild species
have been the parents of the other domestic breeds; and that these species
still exist, though unknown, in some country, or have become extinct. The
extinction, however, of several species of fowls, is an improbable
hypothesis, seeing that the four known species have not become extinct in
the most anciently and thickly peopled regions of the East. There is, in
fact, only one kind of domesticated bird, namely, the Chinese goose or
_Anser cygnoides_, of which the wild parent-form is said to be still
unknown, or extinct. For the discovery of new, or the rediscovery of old
species of Gallus, we must not look, as fanciers often look, to