The tarsi vary considerably in length, being relatively to the femur
considerably longer in the Spanish and Frizzled, and shorter in the
Silk and Bantam breeds, than in the wild _G. bankiva_; but in the
latter, as we have seen, the tarsi vary in length. The tarsi are often
feathered. The feet in many breeds are furnished with additional toes.
Golden-spangled Polish fowls are said[64] to have the skin between
their toes much developed: Mr. Tegetmeier observed this in one bird,
but it was not so in one which I examined. Prof. Hoffmann has sent me a
sketch of the feet of a fowl of the common breed at Giessen, with a web
extending between the three toes, for about a third of their length. In
Cochins the middle toe is said[65] to be nearly double the length of
the lateral toes, and therefore much longer than in _G. bankiva_ or in
other fowls; but this was not the case in two which I examined. The
nail of the middle toe in this same breed is surprisingly broad and
flat, but in a variable degree in two birds which I examined; of this
structure in the nail there is only a trace in _G. bankiva._
The voice differs slightly, as I am informed by Mr. Dixon, in almost
every breed. The Malays[66] have a loud, deep, somewhat prolonged crow,
but with considerable individual difference. Colonel Sykes remarks that
the domestic Kulm cock in India has not the shrill clear pipe of the
English bird, and “his scale of notes appears more limited.” Dr. Hooker
was struck with the “prolonged howling screech” of the cocks in
Sikhim.[67] The crow of the Cochin is notoriously and ludicrously
different from that of the common cock. The disposition of the
different breeds is widely different, varying from the savage and
defiant temper of the Game-cock to the extremely peaceable temper of
the Cochins. The latter, it has been asserted, “graze to a much greater
extent than any other varieties.” The Spanish fowls suffer more from
frost than other breeds.
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