Peninsula, a vast extent of but partially explored country, seeing that the area of this last alone is very little less than that of Great Britain. But the prospects opened to natural history by Sir James Brooke's occupation of Borneo, and his gradual pacification of the enormous oriental Archipelago by the suppression of piracy, are scarcely appreciable at this early period. According to the Quarterly Review (July 1848), no regions of equal extent on the surface of the globe supply equally rich and varied materials for commerce, ranging from gold and gems of the costliest kind, down to the humblest necessaries of daily life. Throughout the whole twelve thousand islands, at almost every step towards the interior, we have discovered some new article of merchandise, some valuable kind of timber, some odoriferous gum, some species of root, or fruit, or grain, not yet included in the catalogue of human food, some rich mineral or vegetable dye, calculated to improve the beauty of our European fabrics; and yet we have hitherto scarcely stepped beyond the threshold of Borneo, Celebes, Palawan, Magindanão, or New Guinea. All beyond the mere fringe of the coast is unknown; though rivers of great breadth and depth court the entrance of steamers, and promise to reveal new lands at every stroke of the paddle. Here is a Paradise for poultry fanciers; enough to make one entreat to be admitted into the Sarawak service as an attaché and volunteer. What delight in tracking some secluded river, or exploring some lovely valley, to behold in the villages Cocks and Hens that would here sell for their weight in silver, if not in gold; or perhaps to stumble on unknown Pea-fowl and Pheasants, a pair of which would draw half Middlesex and Surrey to the Zoological Gardens ! The addition of a fifth toe to the foot (the monstra per excessum of Blumenbach) as in the Dorking variety, is more likely than the crest to have supervened in the course of time. I do not find it mentioned by any earlier writer than Columella. The compilers of books on Poultry have stated that it is noticed by Aristotle, but I cannot hit upon the passage. In his treatise on the Parts of Animals, book iv. chap. 12, he speaks of the four toes of birds in general, noticing the peculiarities of the Ostrich and the Wryneck, but not a word about the fifth toe in Domestic Fowl, which he would scarcely have passed over had he ever observed it; particularly as other remarkable circumstances, connected with them, such as the development of the egg, &c., attracted so much of his attention. From Aristotle to Columella is an interval of about 400 years; quite time enough to render such a slight appendage permanent by hereditary transmission. The new member would probably appear only in a rudimental form at first, and become more strongly developed in the course of succeeding generations. A Cochin China Cock in my possession has the outer toe of each foot furnished with two distinct claws, which we may take to be the earliest indication of a fifth toe. His chickens inherit the same peculiarity. A correspondent (H. H.), on whom I can rely, says, "I had a Cock of the Golden Polish variety that lost two of his claws by accident, and in their place two smaller joints grew from the end of each toe, both provided with little claws. This became hereditary, for next season there were two chicks hatched, both having the aforesaid peculiarity." Analogous instances may be seen in Museums, of lizards with two tails; the original single one having been lost by accident, two grew in its place. It is said, I know not with what truth, that a slight notch made in the stump of the decaudated reptile will ensure the production of a double tail. From the time of Columella to the present day, a fifth toe has been the well-known and distinctive characteristic of a certain breed. Next to the Dog, the Fowl has been the most constant attendant upon Man in his migrations and his occupation of strange lands. The carnivorous diet of the Dog is one main cause of this pre-eminence. But search where you will, except in the very highest latitudes, you will find in New Zealand, Australia, the American Continents, the West Indies, and in islands innumerable, Fowls sharing in the possession and settlement obtained by Man. As we approach the Poles difficulties arise in the way of their further companionship. In Greenland they are occasionally kept only as curiosities and rarities. And Sir Wm. Hooker tells us that Poultry of all kinds is quite unknown to the Icelanders, except that a few are now and then conveyed to the country by the Danes, who are obliged at the same time to bring with them a sufficient supply of necessary food, i. e. grain, for their support, of which the island furnishes none. Fowls, however, would get on very well with a fish and meat diet with grass and vegetables, assisted by a little imported corn, were there sufficient inducement to make the inhabitants take pains about their maintenance. But a little powder and shot procures them an abundance of wild-fowl that are much more to their taste; and fresh-laid eggs would be little cared for by people, who, like the Icelanders, prefer those eggs of the Eider Duck which have young ones in them. But the most mysterious though not the most ungenial localities in which Fowls have hitherto been found are the islands scattered over the vast Pacific Ocean. How they got there is as great or a greater puzzle than to divine the origin of the human population. The earliest discoverers found the people to be possessed of pigs, dogs, and fowls, all domesticated for the sake of being eaten. "On the walk to Oree's house (in Huaheine) Dr. Sparrman and I (Mr. G. Forster who accompanied the expedition as Naturalist) saw great numbers of hogs, dogs, and fowls. The last roamed about at pleasure through the woods, and roosted on fruit-trees."-Cook's Second Voyage, 1772. . ... The "Mr. Forster learned from the people the proper name of the island, which they call Tauna; people of this island can be under no such necessity (of eating human flesh) for the want of other animal food; they have fine pork and fowls, and plenty of roots and fruits."-Ibid. "The traditions of the people state, that fowls have existed in the islands (Tahiti) as long as the people, that they came with the first colonists by whom the islands were peopled, or that they were made by Taarva at the same time that men were made."-Ellis's Polynesian Researches, vol. i., p. 302. This account would assign an unfathomable antiquity to the domestication of Fowls, confirmed by the following legend : "Mr. Young said, among the many traditionary accounts of the origin of the island and its inhabitants, was one, that in former times, when there was nothing but sea, an immense bird settled on the water and laid an egg, which soon bursting, produced the island of Hawaü. Shortly after this a man and woman, with a hog and a dog, and a pair of fowls, arrived in a canoe from the Society Islands, took up their abode in the eastern shores, and were the progenitors of the present inhabitants."-Ellis's Missionary Tour through Hawai. "The domestic Fowl was found in the Sandwich Islands by their first discoverer, and though seldom used as an article of food, is raised for the supply of shipping." -Ibid. p. 9. Captain Cook remarked them on islands that had never before been visited by civilised Man, and the very wide range over which they are distributed, precludes the supposition of their having been introduced by Tasman or any of the other early voyagers. "There is only one tame species of birds, properly speaking, in the tropical isles of the South Sea, viz. the common Cock and Hen; they are numerous at Easter Island, where they are the only domestic animals; they are likewise in great plenty in the Society Isles and Friendly Isles, at which last they are of a prodigious size; they are also not uncommon at the Marquesas, Hebrides, and New Caledonia; but the low isles, and those of the temperate zone, are quite destitute of them."-Mr. Forster's Journal of Captain Cook's Second Voyage. The pigs have been affirmed to differ specifically from the European breeds; less has been said about the Poultry. It appears that there are different varieties in the different islands, some of very large size. Our great commercial and political intercourse with the East makes that the quarter from whence our importations of Fowls are mostly drawn, either as curious specimens, or for the sake of improving our stock; but it would certainly be interesting, and might prove useful, could we obtain a few new sorts, such as the Friendly Island breed, from the less frequented spots in the South Seas. Our Colonists and Missionaries in the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti might surely send us a few Cocks and Hens in return for the many substantial benefits they have derived from the mother country. And should this little book ever penetrate so far into the other hemisphere, let it persuade the Sandwich Islanders to preserve by domestication, and by transmission to this country, a stock of their most interesting,* pretty, and unique little Geese, before the race is quite swept out of existence. "That As to the estimation in which Domestic Fowls are justly held, it is impossible to proclaim their merits adequately. Every county has a "strain" which is superior to that of the other fifty-one counties. strain again," as the Duke said to the singing-boy. Every neighbourhood has some crack breed which is unrivalled elsewhere; every old woman, in every village, has some pet Cock or Hen which she would not part with for twice its weight in butcher's meat, and an ounce of snuff into the bargain. "Non, mihi si linguæ centum sint, oraque centum, *Those in the Zoological Gardens are in a decrepit old age,-past breeding. They resemble the Anser albifrons in miniature, without the white front. They are so tame and attached as to follow their keeper about the house, like dogs. It is not certain that a stock is now to be obtained in England. |