Mr Pat Rich
Monash University - Clayton - Vic - Australia

4-6-1980

Dear Mr Rich,

I read with interest the article Bird history - The first one hundred millions years  which appeared in Oct/Dec 1979 of Australian Natural History prepared by yourself and Rita Berra.

Although not am academic myself I breed domestic chickens (Bantams) and over the past few years have been doing private research on the origin, evolution and distribution of the domestic chicken.

The project began when I set out to trace the history of the Pekin Bantam but I found that one thing led to another and I found myself delving into the origins etc of the domestic chicken in general. It has proved very interesting though frustrating as must of the material available was purely hypothetical and I now feel that the answers must come from the archaeologists, anthropologists and persons such as yourselves who can furnish positive evidence.

Unfortunately very little importance has been placed on the chicken. However I feel that man’s distribution throughout the world is tied with the domestic animals as where man went his animals went with him.

I have the material you mentioned from John Ostrom of Yale University as I during my research I have corresponded with him. I also have the book Fossil Birds.

As I mentioned I breed Pekin Bantams and at times have noted amongst them the claws on the front of the wings appearing as in the Archæopteryx. I mentioned this fact to Professor Ostrom and he advised that this had occurred in a Zoo hatching (1978) in an East African ibis. Quote from him: “Presumably these represent a sport or the recurrence of a primitive condition, perhaps from a near Archaeopteryx state. These claws are different from the spur that occurs in your spur winged plover or screamer which is more like the spur on the shank or metatarsus of galliform (pheasants and chickens) birds”.

The spurs in the wings on my birds were in a much smaller form of course than those of the Archaeopteryx. My quest for information on this subject just seems to lead on from one thing to another but as the origin of the domestic chicken does seem to be somewhat clouded I feel that any lead I may get requires following on.

Charles Darwin concluded that all domestic chickens emanated from the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus Bankiva ). Without discrediting Darwin unfortunately he was not aware of Mendel’s experiments in genetics and it is the opinion of geneticists - Bateson, Punnett and others - that perhaps Bankiva was not the sole progenitor of the chicken.

I am at the moment exploring the possibilities that there were a number of species or subspecies, possibly 3, perhaps emanating from a common extinct ancestor and branching into 3 species, Bankivoids, Malays and Asiatics. Finsterbusch (1929) put forward a positive argument in favour of at least 2 species (Bankivoids and Malays) mainly because of the bone structure.

I am also working on the distribution question. This situation is very heavy, but I have had a couple of leads recently. Chicken bones have been unearthed in North East Thailand (dating back 3500 BC) and also on Watom Island, New Britain. Unfortunately there is no positive identification as to whether they belonged to the Bankivoid or Malay. I am following this lead and may eventually get some results.

My purpose in writing to you is that you may perhaps offer some suggestions as to the line of research I might follow or perhaps you may feel you have some information which could assist the research. I would appreciate any suggestions you may put forward.

Perhaps because of their frailness and being subject to predators, finding fossil remains of birds will remain very elusive, however I guess we must press on.

I hope eventually to prepare some notes on the material I have collected and conclusions.

Sincerely yours,