In adult fowls the male and female are readily distinguished by differences in appearance as well as by the voice. The comb and wattles of the male are larger, and after he has completed his growth are always of the same size and a bright red in color. In the female the comb is much smaller than that of a male of the same family, and both size and color vary periodically, the comb and wattles being larger and the whole head brighter in color when the female is laying. The tail of the male is also much larger than that of the female and has long plumelike coverts. The feathers of his back and neck are long, narrow, and flowing, and in many varieties are much brighter in color than the corresponding feathers on the female. The male has a short, sharp spur on the inside of each leg, a little above the hind toe. Occasionally a female has spurs, but they are usually very small. With so many differences between male and female the sex of an adult fowl is apparent at a glance. In the young of breeds which have large combs the males begin to grow combs when quite small, and so the sex may be known when they are only a few weeks old. In other breeds the sex may not be distinguished with certainty until the birds are several months old, or, in some cases, until they are nearly full-grown. [Illustration: Fig. 15. White Polish male (crowing) and female. (Photograph from Leontine Lincoln Jr., Fall River, Massachusetts)] The adult male fowl is called a _cock_, and also, in popular phrase, a _rooster_. The adult female fowl is called a _hen_. The word "hen" is the feminine form of _hana_, the Anglo-Saxon name for the cock. It is likely that the name "cock," which it is plain was taken from the first syllable of the crow of the bird, was gradually substituted for _hana_ because it is shorter. _Hana_ means "the singer." A young fowl is called a _chicken_ until the sex can be distinguished. After that poultry fanciers call the young male a _cockerel_ and the young female a _pullet_. The word "pullet" is also used by others, but the popular names for a cockerel are _crower_ and _young rooster_. The word "cockerel," as is seen at a glance, is the diminutive of "cock." The word "pullet," sometimes spelled _poulet_, is a diminutive from the French _poule_, "a hen." =Origin of the fowl.= Of the origin of the fowl we have no direct knowledge. It was fully domesticated long before the beginnings of history. There is no true wild race of fowls known. For a long time it was commonly held that the _Gallus Bankiva_, found in the jungles of India, was the ancestor of all the races of the domestic fowl, but this view was not accepted by some of the most careful investigators, and the most recent inquiries into the subject indicate that the so-called _Gallus Bankiva_ is not a native wild species but a feral race, that is, a race developed in the wild from individuals escaped from domestication.