the whole
world. The larger gallinaceous birds, as Mr. Blyth has remarked,[386]
generally have a restricted range: we see this well illustrated in India,
where the genus Gallus inhabits the base of the Himalaya, and is succeeded
higher up by Gallophasis, and still higher up by Phasianus. Australia, with
its islands, is out of the question as the home for unknown species of the
genus. It is, also, as improbable that Gallus should inhabit South
America[387] as that a humming-bird should be found in the Old World. From
the character of the other gallinaceous {238} birds of Africa, it is not
probable that Gallus is an African genus. We need not look to the western
parts of Asia, for Messrs. Blyth and Crawfurd, who have attended to this
subject, doubt whether Gallus ever existed in a wild state even as far west
as Persia. Although the earliest Greek writers speak of the fowl as a
Persian bird, this probably merely indicates its line of importation. For
the discovery of unknown species we must look to India, to the Indo-Chinese
countries, and to the northern parts of the Malay Archipelago. The southern
portion of China is the most likely country; but as Mr. Blyth informs me,
skins have been exported from China during a long period, and living birds
are largely kept there in aviaries, so that any native species of Gallus
would probably have become known. Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, has
translated for me passages from a Chinese Encyclopaedia published in 1609,
but compiled from more ancient documents, in which it is said that fowls
are creatures of the West, and were introduced into the East (_i.e._ China)
in a dynasty 1400 B.C. Whatever may be thought of so ancient a date, we see
that the Indo-Chinese and Indian regions were formerly considered by the
Chinese as the source of the domestic fowl. From these several
considerations we must look to the present metropolis of the genus, namely,
to the south-eastern parts of Asia, for the discovery of species which were
formerly domesticated, but are now unknown in the wild state; and the most
experienced ornithologists do not consider it probable that such species
will be discovered.

In considering whether the domestic breeds are descended from one species,
namely, _G. bankiva_, or from several, we must {239} not quite overlook,
though we must not exaggerate, the importance of the test of fertility.
Most of our domestic breeds have been so often crossed, and their mongrels
so