The hackles do not differ much in the various breeds, but are short and stiff in Malays, and absent in Hennies. As in some orders of birds the males display extraordinarily-shaped feathers, such as naked shafts with discs at the end, &c., the following case may be worth giving. In the wild Gallus bankiva and in our domestic fowls, the barbs which arise from each side of the extremities of the hackles are naked or not clothed with barbules, so that they resemble bristles; but Mr. Brent sent me some scapular hackles from a young Birchen Duckwing Game cock, in which the naked barbs became densely reclothed with barbules towards their tips; so that these tips, which were dark coloured with a metallic lustre, were separated from the lower parts by a symmetrically-shaped transparent zone formed of the naked portions of the barbs. Hence the coloured tips appeared like little separate metallic discs.
The sickle-feathers in the tail, of which there are three pair, and which are eminently characteristic of the male sex, differ much in the various breeds. They are scimitar-shaped in some Hamburghs, instead of being long and flowing as in the typical breeds. They are extremely short in Cochins, and are not at
all developed in Hennies. They are carried, together with the whole tail, erect in Dorkings and Games; but droop much in Malays and in some Cochins. Sultans are characterized by an additional number of lateral sickle-feathers. The spurs vary much, being placed higher or lower on the shank; being extremely long and sharp in Games, and blunt and short in Cochins. These latter birds seem aware that their spurs are not efficient weapons; for though they occasionally use them, they more frequently fight, as I am informed by Mr. Tegetmeier, by seizing and shaking each other with their beaks. In some Indian Game-cocks, received by Mr. Brent from Germany, there are, as he informs me, three, four, or even five spurs on each leg. Some Dorkings also have two spurs on each leg;[[413]] and in birds of this breed the spur is often placed almost on the outside of the leg. Double spurs are mentioned in the ancient Chinese Encyclopædia. Their occurrence may be considered as a case of analogous variation, for some wild gallinaceous birds, for instance, the Polyplectron, have double spurs.
Judging from the differences which generally distinguish the sexes in the Gallinaceæ, certain characters in our domestic fowls appear to have been transferred from the one sex to the other. In all the species (except in Turnix), when there is any conspicuous difference in plumage between the male and female, the male is always the most beautiful; but in golden-spangled Hamburghs the hen is equally beautiful with the cock, and incomparably more beautiful than the hen in any natural species of Gallus; so that here a masculine character has been transferred to the female. On the other hand, in cuckoo Dorkings and in other cuckoo breeds the pencilling, which in Gallus is a female attribute, has been transferred to the male: nor, on the principle of analogous variation, is this transference surprising, as the males in many gallinaceous genera are barred or pencilled. With most of these birds head ornaments of all kinds are more fully developed in the male than in the female; but in Polish fowls the crest or top-knot, which in the male replaces the comb, is equally developed in both sexes. In certain
sub-breeds, which, from the hen having a small crest, are called lark-crested, "a single upright comb sometimes almost entirely takes the place of the crest in the male."[[414]] From this latter case, and from some facts presently to be given with respect to the protuberance of the skull in Polish fowls, the crest in this breed ought perhaps to be viewed as a feminine character which has been transferred to the male. In the Spanish breed the male, as we know, has an immense comb, and this has been partially transferred to the female, for her comb is unusually large, though not upright. In Game-fowls the bold and savage disposition of the male has likewise been largely transferred to the female;[[415]] and she sometimes even possesses the eminently masculine character of spurs. Many cases are on record of hens being furnished with spurs; and in Germany, according to Bechstein,[[416]] the spurs in the Silk-hen are sometimes very long. He mentions also another breed similarly characterized, in which the hens are excellent layers, but are apt to disturb and break their eggs owing to their spurs.
Mr. Layard[[417]] has given an account of a breed of fowls in Ceylon with black skin, bones, and wattle, but with ordinary feathers, and which cannot "be more aptly described than by comparing them to a white fowl drawn down a sooty chimney; it is, however," adds Mr. Layard, "a remarkable fact that a male bird of the pure sooty variety is almost as rare as a tortoise-shell tom-cat." Mr. Blyth finds that the same rule holds good with this breed near Calcutta. The males and females, on the other hand, of the black-boned European breed, with silky feathers, do not differ from each other; so that in the one breed black skin and bones, and the same kind of plumage, are common to both sexes, whilst in the other breed these characters are confined to the female sex.
At the present day all the breeds of Polish fowls have the great bony protuberance on their skulls, which includes part of the brain and supports the crest, equally developed in both sexes.
But formerly in Germany the skull of the hen alone was protuberant: Blumenbach,[[418]] who particularly attended to abnormal peculiarities in domestic animals, states, in 1813, that this was the case; and Bechstein had previously, in 1793, observed the same fact. This latter author has carefully described the effects of a crest on the skull not only in fowls, but in ducks, geese, and canaries. He states that with fowls, when the crest is not much developed, it is supported on a fatty mass; but when much developed, it is always supported on a bony protuberance of variable size. He well describes the peculiarities of this protuberance, and he attended to the effects of the modified shape of the brain on the intellect of these birds, and disputes Pallas' statement that they are stupid. He then expressly states that he never observed this protuberance in male fowls. Hence there can be no doubt that this remarkable character in the skulls of Polish fowls was formerly in Germany confined to the female sex, but has now been transferred to the males, and has thus become common to both sexes.
External Differences, not connected with the sexes, between the breeds and between individual birds.
The size of the body differs greatly. Mr. Tegetmeier has known a Brahma to weigh 17 pounds; a fine Malay cock 10 pounds; whilst a first-rate Sebright Bantam weighs hardly more than 1 pound. During the last 20 years the size of some of our breeds has been largely increased by methodical selection, whilst that of other breeds has been much diminished. We have already seen how greatly colour varies even within the same breed; we know that the wild G. bankiva varies slightly in colour; we know that colour is variable in all our domestic animals; nevertheless some eminent fanciers have so little faith in variability, that they have actually argued that the chief Game sub-breeds, which differ from each other in nothing but colour, are descended from distinct wild species! Crossing often causes strange modifications of colour. Mr. Tegetmeier informs me that when buff and white Cochins are crossed, some of the chickens are almost invariably black. According to Mr. Brent, black and white Cochins occasionally produce chickens of a slaty-blue tint; and this same tint appears, as Mr. Tegetmeier tells me, from crossing white Cochins with black Spanish fowls, or white Dorkings with black Minorcas.[[419]] A good observer[[420]] states that a first-rate silver-spangled Hamburgh hen gradually lost the most characteristic qualities of the breed, for the black lacing to her feathers disappeared, and her legs changed from leaden-blue to white; but what makes the case remarkable is, that this tendency ran in the blood, for her sister changed in a similar but less strongly marked manner; and chickens produced from this latter hen were at first almost pure white, "but on moulting acquired black collars and some spangled feathers with almost obliterated markings;" so that a new variety arose in this singular manner. The skin in the different breeds differs much in colour, being white in common kinds, yellow in Malays and Cochins, and black in Silk fowls; thus mocking, as M. Godron[[421]] remarks, the three principal types of skin in mankind. The same author adds, that, as different kinds of fowls living in distant and isolated parts of the world have black skin and bones, this colour must have appeared at various times and places.
The shape and carriage of the body and the shape of the head differ much. The beak varies slightly in length and curvature, but incomparably less than with pigeons. In most crested fowls the nostrils offer a remarkable peculiarity in being raised with a crescentic outline. The primary wing-feathers are short in Cochins; in a male, which must have been more than twice as heavy as G. bankiva, these feathers were in both birds of the same length. I have counted, with Mr. Tegetmeier's aid, the primary wing-feathers in thirteen cocks and hens of various breeds; in four of them, namely in two Hamburghs, a Cochin, and Game Bantam, there were 10, instead of the normal number 9; but in counting these feathers I have followed the practice of fanciers, and have not included the first minute primary feather, barely three-quarters of an inch in length. These feathers differ considerably in relative length, the fourth, or the fifth, or the sixth, being the longest; with the third either equal to, or considerably shorter than the fifth. In wild gallinaceous species the relative length and number of the main wing and tail-feathers are extremely constant.
The tail differs much in erectness and size, being small in Malays and very small in Cochins. In thirteen fowls of various breeds which I have examined, five had the normal number of 14 feathers, including in this number the two middle sickle-feathers; six others (viz. a Caffre cock, Gold-spangled Polish cock, Cochin hen, Sultan hen, Game hen, and Malay hen) had 16; and two (an old Cochin cock and Malay hen) had 17 feathers. The rumpless fowl has no tail, and in a bird which I kept alive the oil-gland had aborted; but this bird, though the os coccygis was extremely imperfect, had a vestige of a tail with two rather long feathers in the position of the outer caudals. This bird came from a family where, as I was told, the breed had kept true for twenty years; but rumpless fowls often produce chickens with tails.[[422]] An eminent physiologist[[423]] has recently spoken of this breed as a distinct species; had he examined the deformed state of the os coccyx he would never have come to this conclusion; he was probably misled by the statement, which may be found in some works, that tailless fowls are wild in Ceylon; but this statement, as I have been assured by Mr. Layard and Dr. Kellaert, who have so closely studied the birds of Ceylon, is utterly false.
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[[424]] 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. In Cochins the middle toe is said[[425]] 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[[426]] have a loud, deep, somewhat prolonged crow, but with considerable individual differences. 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.[[427]] 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 Cochin. 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.