May
14, 1989
Dear
Bill:
This
rainy Sunday I picked up your Chicken in
the Pacific for a second reading.
Who
was Langdon? Do you have a copy of his lecture. I would like to get a copy.
Are
there fowl in the Pacific that lay blue eggs? Naked necks?
If
I am asking questions that are answered in your writings, please forgive me.
But you do have a mass of material and I am basically interested in ducks.
Could
you give me a more complete reference to the O’Strander book on the Jungle
Chicken?
I
will be keenly interested in the translation of the origin of the chicken from
the Japanese.
Having
reread your material I am going to send it on to George Carter who is more
into bones and linguistics than I.
Please
let me know if you would like a copy of my history of the Muscovy duck in
which I reveal the source of the name and my ideas on the dispersion of the
duck around the world.
Also
do you have the paper on the wild chickens bantams actually of the Philippines
which appeared in the Yearbook of the American Bantam Ass’n some years back?
If not, whistle. (There are also wild chickens in the mountains of Taiwan,
also small.)
Your
reference to Darwin prompts this:
The
jungle fowl has a single comb. Your Giant Malay type has a pea comb. Do you
see any survival value to either?
Isn’t
naked neck a Malay trait?
If
you learn anything about the domestication of the duck from your Chinese or
Japanese contacts, please pass them on.
All
the best.