April
26 1995
Dear
Bill
There
has been a gap in our correspondence I had a stroke about two months ago. I
had to regain my speech, ability to read, and finally to write, though still
with some difficulty. Many thanks for your many mailing, all very helpful.
What can I do for you? I have a number of the Japanese papers. I have little
success so far in getting dates on chicken bones, but we are going on trying.
On
origins I am firmly in your camp. I think that the Malay is quite separate
from the others. It seems to be that there are basically three races. I used
Race for broad groupings Breeds are minor groups, today the result of breeders
work.
I
find your comment that the length of the gut in the Malay is half the length
of the rest of the chickens be most important. What is your source? I have
never read Darwin and Tegetmeir and their argument - (I am sure that it is in
the library).
I
must go back and re read Ball on Polynesia. I will one of these days be asking
you for help on understanding the kinds of chickens described by Pridgen(?) in
cock fighting in South America. They are all said to be Malays
including the melanotic chickens in this and called fighters. In everything
the Malay is different. No wattles! Short gut. Prefers open sites. etc I at
times wonder if the birds could even fly - marrow and interior structures in
their bones?? True?? This defines a bird on the verge of becoming flightless
and that normally appears in island locations with few predators.
I
have listed some of the characteristics of the major races: Cochin as one
type, Mediterranean as another, and the Malay the other. The Mediterranean
seems to be closest to the Wild. The Cochin looks like a chicken with dwarf
characteristics (short legs and legs) but very large heavy bodies, and I would
think of a Chinese selection for a fluffy feathered, feathered legged with
head feather puffs, and a heavy body—all excellent adaptation to cold. This
includes tames, perhaps because they were kept close as they would have to be
in a cold winter area Even the reduced combs would be advantageous in avoiding
freezing They are also notable for not stopping laying as soon as the cold
sets in. So I think of them as cold adapted chickens I would bet if we had
information on the Russian types that they show very much the same traits.
As
is obvious I do not think in the normal tracks, and Hoffmann falls into a
frenzy when he reads my aberrations I will include a scribbly table of
differences and similarities. And of course the chickens in Indians hands in
America come out Asiatic. More later I did want you to know what happened.
Original
- small Jungle Fowl
Malay
- later crossed by Jungle Fowl - increase in size? See below.
Blends
Cochin
x ? = Brahma - other large breeds?
Or
is the size Malay x ? whatever?
A
substratum of small near wild chickens is common.
Large
size is local - Mostly NE Asia?
Malay
really does not give size - only length, they are not heavy.
It
looks more and more as if the large, heavy breeds are a cold adaptation that
arose in China.
A
friend South India described the chickens as having only a little more meat
than a pigeon.
One
report said to be in a recent study of Hawaii that Polynesian only brought the
Malays for ritual wild examples still on the island.
The
antiquity for man in Hawaii has just been moved 500 for so centuries.
Enough.
This is thinking on paper. Thoughts are not the Ten Commandments, but trying
out ideas.
Would
like to have copies of some of the Japanese papers? Lots on the Jungle Fowl,
lots of measurements.
I
would conclude (subject to change any days!):
Mediterranean |
ca 1500 BC chickens carried to the Mediterranean
probably first to Egypt. Oddity: the relative rare (?) white eggs
layers with the type introduced close to the wild. Learned incubation
from the Egyptians developed the non-brooders for continuous laying.
This type persists. Breeds for eggs and meat maintained the Medieval
time in the Monasteries. |
China |
Very early introduction. Development of a cold
adaptation type. The Cochin. Though. Spreads inland Siberia-Russia to
Eastern Europe. Orloff as the type? A cold type before the later heavy
types were selected out? |
Malay |
An island form. Developed in considerable freedom
from predation. Was following the Moa pattern, loss (income) of
flights, beginning of giantism, specialty on shore, an abundance of
proteins (crabs, crawfish, worms, etc). Develops a short gut adapt to
protein diet. |
Questions
crossed with Jungle Fowl? Extreme form then goes extinct? Or, the present
Malay is it?
Notes
India
today has many very small chickens, Philippines, Polynesia, very small either
wild or very close to it. Japan native
races are small. Only these chickens incorporate dori/tori names the
introduced chickens. 16th
century introductions never have dori in their names. The Chinese chickens
reached China in the 1890’s from England!
Major
Groups (Races)
|
Mediterranean |
Cochin |
Malay |
egg |
white |
brown |
brown |
eggs vary |
white, cream (usually called
tinted), brown, rare in America only blue green. Somehow: preference
or accident of introduction, white in the Mediterranean |
||
tail m |
showy
30° |
short |
showy ¯
30° |
fighting |
in air |
little? |
on the ground 1 |
character |
flighty-nervous |
tame |
? |
spurs m |
upcurved |
strait |
strait? |
wings |
proportions |
very short |
small? |
|
like wild flyers |
|
|
legs |
proportions |
very short |
very long |
|
like wild flyers |
|
|
posture |
normal |
normal |
very erect |
body |
light |
heavy |
light for size |
broody 2 |
none |
good |
good |
gut length |
normal |
normal |
½ of normal |
preferred habitat |
wood field |
farm yard |
upon, even beaches
3 |
feathering |
tight
(smooth) |
fluffy |
scant |
wattles |
paired |
paired |
absent 4 |
puffs |
none |
common |
none |
feathered legs |
no |
yes |
no |
use |
used |
In
Asia in general largely ritual |
the same as Cochin? |
religion |
identical religious uses common through Asia (an
appear in America |
||
names |
enormous variations recorded by Wallace. Elsewhere a
great uniformity: Polynesia one word, Malay one word, Chine one word,
Ecuador several, Maya many. |
||
1
- I read they cold and never let go 2
- implies a very long period of use of artificial hatching and
enormous specializing on egg production 3
- suggests an island origin 4
- naked throat and naked strip extend down the breast |