17-6-1991

Dear Bill,

I was really pleased to get your latest volume ($10 enclosed, by the way), and to hear that you’re soldiering on despite some eye troubles. I can’t imagine how I would have coped if I couldn’t see to read for any length of time, as reading and correspondence are so important to me. I’m not surprised you found it frustrating, and I hope your sight holds up for you.

The Jungle Fowls  volume is very well done. It’s better set-out than the previous volumes, and it’s really full of excellent information. I’ve read it several times already and I’m always noticing new information each time. The only problem with my copy is that page 10 is blank. Would it be possible to get a photocopy of this page? No rush.

I’m particularly interested in the separate origin theories for the Asian breeds of fowl. The impression I had the first time I saw a Malay Game was of a whole new species of bird unlike anything I’d seen before. Whether it’s tine or not, it certainly bears close consideration.

Egg colour is always a special interest of mine, which is only I keep Araucanas and Welsummers (I have been selecting Welsummers to get the proper brown eggs which so many strains now lack, and their egg colour is now very close to that of a Barnevelder). The impression I have had from my reading has been that all brown-egg breeds are either Asian, or have Asian blood in them.

This certainly is another aspect which suggests that Asian and Western pure breeds are very different. I’m not so convinced that there were two now-extinct Junglefowl which were the ancestors of different Asian breeds. Many of the Asian Types have strong similarities (e.g. large size, ground-dwelling habit, brown eggs, comb-types, etc) which suggest a single common ancestor rather than two different ones.

If the ancestors of Asian and Western stocks are different species, this could almost certainly be shown by electrophoresis. Of course, you pointed out the main problem with this would be obtaining absolutely pure stocks. It might still be possible, though. For example, many English strains of Dorking may still be pure, laying white eggs, having distinct skin colour etc. A number of Dorking strains in Australia have Faverolles mixed in, so are no longer pure as Faverolles definitely have Asian blood.

It should also still be possible to obtain some pure Asian stocks in China, but this means that any researcher wanting to do work of this kind would have to travel both to China and to England (or any other country in Europe where pure stocks of Mediterranean/European breeds still existed).

I’ve been trying to get more information on Araucanas, in particular the book by Caudill. Do you know of anyone in Australia with a copy? It has long been out of print, so I am eagerly trying to get hold of a photocopy. I’ve also tried contacting the British and Canadian Araucana Societies in the hope of picking up a second hand copy but no luck so far.

You mentioned the paper you received from Cawley in the USA. Would it be possible to obtain a photocopy of it from you, or his address to contact him directly? I’d be happy to pay any costs, of course.

The information you have been getting on pre-Columbian chicken bone recoveries and the older recoveries in Thailand etc sound very promising. I am looking forward to hearing more about this when you print the next volume. You mention new information coming through from China, and that has to be an important source of information. Completely off the record (because I have no evidence for saying it), I would not be surprised if chickens in China and parts of Asia turned out to be among the very first animals even domesticated on earth. Certainly, they would have required less effort and elaborate fencing (etc) to keep them as domestic animals that large and dangerous animals such as wild cattle, bears and wolves!

I’ve had a long day, so I’ll sign off, now. I’ll be re-reading volume 3 a few more times, and thinking a bit more about it too; there’s quit a bit there to absorb, and you’re obviously put a huge amount of work into it. I’ll be looking forward to further volumes and to hearing from you again fairly soon.

Regards,

P.S. I’ve just read an interesting book on domestic animals and their history, which includes a large chapter on Fowls. It is a detailed summary of what is definitely known, and what is not known definitely, about fowls, including pre-Columbian chickens. Although it is basically conservative, the author keeps an open mind and includes alternative ideas, and gives many references. I’ll send you a copy when I have a chance to photocopy it.