Poultry: A Practical Guide to the Choice, Breeding, Rearing, and Management of all Descriptions of Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Ducks, and Geese, for Profit and Exhibition.Piper, Hugh
Science
Poultry: A Practical Guide to the Choice, Breeding, Rearing, and Management of all Descriptions of Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Ducks, and Geese, for Profit and Exhibition.
Piper, Hugh
Poultry -- Breeding
This was the first of the gigantic Asiatic breeds imported into this
country, and in height and size exceeds any fowl yet known. The origin
of the Malay breed is supposed to be the _Gallus giganteus_ of Temminck.
"This large and very remarkable species," says Mr. W. C. L. Martin, "is
a native of Java and Sumatra. 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 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 the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" for 1832, we find the
following notice respecting this breed, by Colonel Sykes, who observed
it domesticated in the Deccan: "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 note
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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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