CHAPTER XVIII.
BANTAMS.
Of this breed one kind is Game, and resembles the Game fowl, except in size; another is feathered to the very toes, the feathers on the tarsi, or beam of the leg, being long and stiff, and often brushing the ground. They are peculiarly fancy fowls. There are several varieties, the White, Black, Nankin, Partridge, Booted or Feather-legged, Game, and the Golden-laced and Silver-laced, or Sebright Bantam. All should be very small, varying from fourteen to twenty ounces in the hen, and from sixteen to twenty-four in the cock. The head should be narrow; beak curved; forehead rounded; eyes bright; back short; body round and full; breast very prominent; legs short and clean, except in the Booted variety; wings depressed; and the carriage unusually erect, the back of the neck and the tail feathers almost touching; and the whole bearing graceful, bold, and proud.
Black. Sebright's Gold and Silver-laced. White. Game.
BANTAMS.
"The Javanese jungle-fowl" (Gallus Bankiva), says Mr. W. C. L. Martin, "the Ayam-utan of the Malays, is a native of Java; but either a variety or a distinct species of larger size, yet very similar in colouring, is found in continental India. The Javanese, or Bankiva jungle-fowl, is about the size of an ordinary Bantam, and in plumage resembles the black-breasted red Game-bird of our country, with, a steel-blue mark across the wings. The comb is high, its edge is deeply serrated, and the wattles are rather large. The hackle feathers of the neck and rump are long and of a glossy golden orange; the shoulders are chestnut red, the greater wing-coverts deep steel-blue, the quill feathers brownish black, edged with pale, reddish yellow, or sandy red. The tail is of a black colour, with metallic reflections of green and blue. The under parts are black the naked space round the eyes, the comb, and wattles are scarlet. The hen closely resembles a brown hen of the Game breed, except in being very much smaller. That this bird, or its continental ally, is one of the sources—perhaps the main source—of our domestic race, cannot be doubted. It inter-breeds freely with our common poultry, and the progeny is fertile. Most beautiful cross-breeds between the Bankiva jungle-fowl and Bantam may be seen in the gardens of the Zoological Society."
"That the Bankiva jungle-fowl of Java, or its larger continental variety, if it be not a distinct species (and of which Sir W. Jardine states that he has seen several specimens), is one of the sources of our domestic breeds, cannot, we think, be for a moment doubted. It would be difficult to discover any difference between a clean-limbed, black-breasted red Bantam-cock, and a cock Bankiva jungle-fowl. Indeed, the very term Bantam goes far to prove their specific identity. Bantam is a town or city at the bottom of a bay on the northern coast of Java; it was first visited by the Portuguese in 1511, at which time a great trade was carried on by the town with Arabia, Hindostan, and China, chiefly in pepper. Subsequently it fell into the hands of the Dutch, and was at one time the great rendezvous for European shipping. It is now a place of comparative insignificance. From this it would seem that the jungle-fowls domesticated and sold to the Europeans at Bantam continued to be designated by the name of the place where they were obtained, and in process of time the name was appropriated to all our dwarfish breeds."
Game Bantams are exact miniatures of real Game fowls, in Black-breasted red, Duck-wing, and other varieties. The cocks must not have the strut of the Bantam, but the bold, martial bearing of the Game cock. Their wings should be carried closely, and their feathers be hard and close. The Duck-wing cock's lower wing-coverts should be marked with blue, forming a bar across each wing.