Professor George Carter
Texas A&M University - College Station- Texas - USA

15-4-1980

Dear Professor Carter,

I thank you for your letter of February 27 which received today. Surface mail usually takes 6 to 8 weeks to come out from the States.

The information contained in your letter I found very interesting but I regret to hear that you haven’t done too much on the chicken since your paper was written. Some of your reference to Professor Johannessen could be useful to me as I recently received a letter in answer to an enquiry on the chicken bone subject from Prof Wilhelm Solheim who is presently at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He mentioned a Professor Jorgensen at the University of Oregon but was no sure he had the correct name. It is most probably Prof Johannessen he had in mind. He was going to confirm the name when he returned to Hawaii. Prof Solheim also referred me to Prof Charles Higham of the University of Otago in New Zealand who is taking care of identification and study of all the animal bone that has been recovered in North Eastern Thailand where excavations have been going on recently, some dating back to a bit before 10.000 BC. It may be an interesting contact because I am aware of the fact that a student from the University of Otago  has done a thesis on the dating of chicken bone, but as yet have no information on any conclusions of this thesis. It is unfortunate that results of the study on the chicken bones found in America dating around 1400 were not published. This could perhaps assisted the pre-Colombian cause.

I am at present reading once again Heyerdahl’s Ra Expeditions when he travelled the Atlantic in the papyrus boats. He at least proved that there could have quite easily been pre-Columbian contacts from the East and perhaps they could have brought chickens with them.

I agree with you that really needs someone to get these facts into the subject of chicken species. Professor Punnett many years ago said that until such time that exhaustive experiments were carried out along the lines you suggest on the wild types etc that the question that all domestic chickens emanated from the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus Bankiva) could not be settled. Unfortunately Charles Darwin when suggesting that this was the case was not aware of Gregor Mendel’s work in the field of genetics. To me there seems to be so many differences between the Asiatics, Malay and Bankivoids it could not be put down to just variation and mutation when we still have the Bankivoid as it was in the beginning. Perhaps the Araucana (Blue Egg) chicken another species again for it has many features that are not present in the other 3 species I mentioned.

I endeavoured to gain information as to whether the chickens on Easter Island when first discovered by Roggeveen 1722 laid blue eggs. If they have, once again Heyerdahl on his Kon Tiki Expedition theory that migration from South America into Polynesia could have been possible. I wrote to Cambridge University in England who have a fairly detailed report on Roggeveen’s visit to Easter Island. In Carl Friederich Behrens narrative on Roggeveen’s visit there is reference to 500 live fowls which were like that of the Vierländen which is apparently on agricultural area adjacent to the city of Hamburg in Germany. To me it would appear they would more likely to come from an easterly direction through the Americas than from Asia.

In a communication from Mr Heyerdahl some little time back he tells me the blue egg chicken were on the Island when he was there but that doesn’t prove anything as Easter Island has been in contact with Chile for quite a long time. I have not seen the photographs of Heyerdahl stone hens but hope to get hold of photos one of these days to for comparison. I have not noted any information of the blue eggs anywhere but in South America in early days.

Your mention of the Dutch book. The Dutch would have been probably among the first of the Europeans to bring back chickens from Asia. Also your book perhaps could prove interesting. However I think the eventual answers and positive evidence must come from the archæologists.

I thank you for the information on publications on the subject. There are a couple of publications I have to obtain from the Bishop Museum in Hawaii which may have some leads to follow. There is no doubt I recently look  on a tough one when I started looking for information on the evolution, history and distribution of the domestic chicken, but nothing ventured nothing gained but will press on hoping something may turn. There is no doubt it is an interesting subject but very frustrating I’m afraid.

Once again thank you for your letter and information. It is very much appreciated, I can assure you.

Sincerely yours,