23rd November, 1976

Dear Mister Plant,

Thank you for your letter concerning junglefowl.

Unfortunately, I doubt whether my article would be of much use to you. I must admit that I have very little interest in Gallus. The editor thought it would be interesting to trace the spread of the chicken from its origin to all the different parts of the world. Thus this project was not developed from our interest but rather from a personal whim of the editor. Since the subject involved a half-scientific half-anthropological approach, it became a choice between 8 members of the Anthropology Department and myself to do the writing.

As I was chosen, I attempted to write a very general survey of this topic and since neither poultry science nor anthropology is my field, I primarily paraphrased a few texts I had available.

The article, then, is probably not of the depth that you would like and I expect that you have already covered the subject far more extensively than I did. Publication will be next year and I will be glad to send you a copy. I am sorry that I have not been of greater help to you.

Best wishes on your research.

Yours sincerely,

Walter E. Boles
Department of Ornithology

This article will be appearing in the museum’s popular magazine Australian Natural History.