The Crowing of the Jungle Cock

Abstract

IN the letter in your last issue (p. 295), in which Mr. Forbes endeavours to controvert my statement with reference to the crowing of jungle fowl, his account is extremely vague and indefinite. He admits he did not secure the bird, and omits to name the species; he cannot say it was a pure-bred jungle fowl, and according to his account the voice was “considerably thinner in volume, more wiry, and higher pitched.” I have no doubt that there are in Timor plenty of common fowls, and knowing how readily they will cross with the jungle fowl, I think it highly probable that Mr. Forbes may have heard the crow of a hybrid: hybrids are, in some places, as common and wild as the pure breed. Wild caught hybrids are frequently brought here and offered as pure-bred birds.