Blyth and others have noted, the voice of both sexes of the
common domestic fowl; but the last note of the crow of the wild bird is
rather less prolonged. Captain Hutton, well known for his researches
into the natural history of India, informs me that he has seen several
crossed fowls from the wild species and the Chinese bantam; these
crossed fowls _bred freely_ with bantams, but unfortunately were not
crossed _inter se_. Captain Hutton reared chickens from the eggs of the
_Gallus bankiva_; and these, though at first very wild, afterwards
became so tame that they would crowd round his feet. He did not succeed
in rearing them to maturity; but, as he remarks, "no wild gallinaceous
bird thrives well at first on hard grain." Mr. Blyth also found much
difficulty in keeping _G. bankiva_ in confinement. In the Philippine
Islands, however, the natives must succeed better, as they keep wild
cocks to fight with their domestic game-birds.[382] Sir Walter Elliot
informs me that the hen of a native 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.
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