to have a slightly forked form: the large hanging feathers are of a rich metallic green, tinged with steel-blue. The bill, legs, and feet, are yellow.

The hen has a circle round the eyes only, naked and of a livid tint: the head and back part of the neck are brown, and above each eye there is a reddish streak: the back and wing-coverts are of a dull green, with golden reflections, each feather having a greyish-brown margin: the greater coverts and secondaries are black, with greenish reflections, waved transversely with yellowish-brown, and having the tips entirely of that colour; the tail and wings brown, the feathers of the former edged with pale reddish, the whole of the under parts are grey, the tips of the feathers on the breast tipped with a deeper tint; the feet and legs are brown.

Tem

This bird is said to be very abundant in Java, and may be often seen during the day upon the edges of the woods and jungles, but possesses the same wary disposition of its congeners and the pheasants, and upon the least alarm runs for cover. minck observes that they are not kept in a domestic state, but that they occasionally breed with the tame hens-a curious fact, and showing the uncertainty with which the true origin is clouded. The cry may be expressed, he says, by the syllables co-crek.

The last that we shall here notice, is still more remarkable in the form of the neck and back feathers, which are completely separated in their form and colour from all the others. It is

VOL. III,

SONNERAT'S WILD COCK.

Gallus Sonneratii.-TEMMINCK.

PLATE XI. MALE.-XII. FEMALE.

Coq sauvage, Sonnerat's India, ii. pls. 94. & 95.-Phasianus Gallus, Lath. Index Ornithologicus.-Coq et Poule Sonnerat, Temminck, Pigeons et Gallinacées, ii. p. 246.Planches Coloriées, pls. 232, 233.-Sonnerat's Wild Cock, Latham's General History, vol. viii. p. 181.

SONNERAT'S Cock has been dedicated by M. Temminck to its discoverer. The first notice we find of it which can be trusted, is in the Voyage to India by that traveller, under the title of Wild Cock, and asserting it as the probable stock from which all our domestic races have arisen. The very great difference of the structure of the plumage, however, renders this most improbable; and none of the domesticated races in India bear the least resemblance to it. It is a native of the continent of India, inhabiting the higher wooded districts, particularly Indostan, where, among English sportsmen, it receives the name of Jungle Fowl; and specimens of it, next to the Bankiva cock, are much the most frequent in collections in this country. In size, it is nearly equal to an ordinary domestic fowl, the proportions

rather more slender and graceful: the comb is large, and with an unequal margin; and double wattles hang from the base of the under mandibles. But the most singular part in the plumage is in the form of the shaft in all the long hackled feathers: those of the neck, wing and tail coverts have a dark greyish ground, but the shafts are of a bright golden orange, and in the centre and at the tip dilate into a flat horny plate, similar to what is seen in the wings and tail of the Bohemian Wax-wing. They will, however, be better understood by the accompanying representations

of their form. Their appearance is both singular and beautiful. The centre of the back, the throat, breast, belly, and thighs, are of a deep and rich grey, having the shafts and edges of a paler tint. The tail is of a rich and deep green: the feathers which immediately succeed the long hackles of a rich purple, edged with a pale yellow, and those immediately succeeding of a golden-green, edged with grey, the

whole with very brilliant metallic reflections. The bill, legs, and feet, are yellow.

The hen is about a third less than the cock, without comb or wattles. The plumage has no trace of the horny structure adorning the other sex. The upper parts of it are of a uniform brown: the feathers on the neck edged with a dark margin, upon the back and wing-coverts with a pale streak along the shaft, and on the wings, tail coverts and tail, waved and mottled with darker markings. The throat and fore part of the neck is white, and on the rest of the lower parts each feather is of a greyish-white, edged with dark brown; towards the vent the brown predominates. The legs and feet are bluish-grey.

Dr Latham observes that this species is by far the boldest and strongest in proportion to its size, and in Indostan is anxiously sought after by the cockfighters, seldom failing to secure the victory over the larger game cocks.

the

We shall now proceed to the Pheasants, forming