generations, will have steadily augmented each new peculiarity, and thus have given rise to new breeds. As soon as two or three breeds were once formed, crossing would come into play in changing their character and in increasing their number. Brahma Pootras, according to an account lately published in America, offer a good instance of a breed, lately formed by a cross, which can be truly propagated. The well-known Sebright Bantams offer another and similar instance. Hence it may be concluded that not only the Game-breed but that all our breeds are probably the descendants of the Malayan or Indian variety of G. bankiva. If so, this species has varied greatly since it was first domesticated; but there has been ample time, as we shall now show. HISTORY OF THE FOWL. Rutimeyer found no remains of the fowl in the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings; but, according to Jeitteles (7/33. 'Die vorgeschichtlichen Alterthumer' II. Theil 1872 page 5. Dr. Pickering in his 'Races of Man' 1850 page 374 says that the head and neck of a fowl is carried in a Tribute-procession to Thoutmousis III. (1445 B.C.); but Mr. Birch of the British Museum doubts whether the figure can be identified as the head of a fowl. Some caution is necessary with reference to the absence of figures of the fowl on the ancient Egyptian monuments, on account of the strong and widely prevalent prejudice against this bird. I am informed by the Rev. S. Erhardt that on the east coast of Africa, from 4 to 6 deg south of the equator, most of the pagan tribes at the present day hold the fowl in aversion. The natives of the Pellew Islands would not eat the fowl nor will the Indians in some parts of S. America. For the ancient history of the fowl see also Volz 'Beitrage zur Culturgeschichte' 1852 s. 77; and Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire 'Hist. Nat. Gen.' tome 3 page 61. Mr. Crawfurd has given an admirable history of the fowl in his paper 'On the Relation of Domesticated Animals to Civilisation' read before the Brit. Assoc. at Oxford in 1860 and since printed separately. I quote from him on the Greek poet Theognis, and on the Harpy Tomb described by Sir C. Fellowes. I quote from a letter of Mr. Blyth's with respect to the Institutes of Manu.), such have certainly since been found associated with extinct animals and prehistoric remains. It is, therefore a strange fact that the fowl is not mentioned in the Old Testament, nor figured on the ancient Egyptian monuments. It is not referred to by Homer or Hesiod (about 900 B.C.); but is mentioned by Theognis and Aristophanes between 400 and 500 B.C. It is figured on some of the Babylonian cylinders, between the sixth and seventh centuries B.C., of which Mr. Layard sent me an impression; and on the Harpy Tomb in Lycia, about 600 B.C.: so that the fowl apparently reached Europe in a domesticated condition somewhere about the sixth century B.C. It had travelled still farther westward by the time of the Christian era, for it was found in Britain by Julius Caesar.