January 22, 1996

Dear Mr Plant:

So far I have only had time to scan your publication on the Jungle Fowls. Are you acquainted with Jungle Fowls From Pacific Islands, by Stanley C. Ball in 1933? It was originally published as Bulletin 108, by the Bernice P.Bishop Museum and reprinted by Kraus Reprint Company of New York. I ordered a copy from the Bishop Museum in 1972 and my order was forwarded to Kraus. The order worksheet is still in my copy, so I have made a copy for you .

During World War II, I served in the Army Pigeon Service. So was interested in the pigeons displayed in the Australian National War Museum in Canberra when I visited there. Two of the birds had been awarded the Dicken Medal for gallantry by the British Government. However, I was not able to learn much about the Australian Army Pigeon Service.

Two of my friends have had connections with the Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney. Jack Throp was director, and Kerry Muller curator of birds. Kerry is now director of the zoo in Wellington, New Zealand, and Jack is back in the States. We also became acquainted with the Robertsons at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary near Brisbane.

I mention these things, because as a chicken person you are probably interested in other form of animal life. Poultry, game birds, and wildlife have been my lifetime vocation. After the War, during the occupation of Germany, as a military government officer I was in charge of the Munich Zoo and Circus Krone.

You say you plan to chase up some loose ends in the United Kingdom, some of my old books came from used book stores in London. I just paid $100 to have the binding repaired on my two volume set of Our Poultry by Harrison Weir.

Sincerely,

WRITER CHALLENGES ORIGIN OF FOWL

The America Poultryman - April 1949
By Capt. Jerome J. Pratt

Many of our readers will remember Capt. Jerome J. Pratt, known to us as Jerry. The last convention of the American Poultry Association he attended was at Pittsburgh, Pa. He was also at our convention in Chicago just before Pittsburgh. He has made a close study of breeding and while some of his statements will be objected to by some, we feel certain that many of our fowls are not directly from the jungle fowl, but have a mixture of pheasant blood in the lines. I have photographs and data of a domestic line of fowls in which there were three distinct infusions of pheasant blood starting with an old black hen. In seven generations, we were able to develop a silver pencilled pattern with a. crest.

Capt. Pratt and his good wife are doing a wonderful job. The Mrs is practically supplying one orphanage with clothing and school supplies. They are getting a large share of these supplies from school and church groups in Kansas as a result of a lecture given by a teacher who was in Germany last year. Capt. Pratt says they receive many supplies from Tipton, Indiana. The Oakes Manufacturing Co. handled the shipping and the Pioneer Seed Corn furnished the packing material. We hope to have further articles from Jerry.

Harry Atkins, Secretary,

AMERICAN POULTRY ASSOCIATION

Documentary evidence leads us to believe that there has been a keen interest in the breeding of chickens according to a certain standard since the beginning of civilization. The American Poultry Association has been the recognized authority for established standards for chickens in the United States and Canada since 1874. Over 50 breeds of standard-bred fowls are described in the association's "American Standard of Perfection", a guide and textbook on the subject published by the organization.

All of these breeds of chickens and an additional hundred or more breeds and varieties of domestic fowls found in other parts of the world, not recognized as standard-bred in America, are believed to be descended of a common ancestor, the red Indian jungle fowl (Gallus gallus or Gallus bankiva). There are several species of jungle fowl, however, invariably for some unknown reason the early writers on the subject of the domestication of fowls gave full credit to the red jungle fowl as the sole foundation of domestic fowls.

I take exception to this concept on the origin and development of domestic fowls that has caused us to accept this one particular variety of jungle fowl as the seed our billion-dollar industry has grown from. In my opinion the skilful breeding of man, aided by evolution, could not have possibly extracted so many different characteristics from a single source in the short period of time that elapsed the beginning of civilization and the first mention of a domestic fowl that possessed very little resemblance of the jungle fowl.

I believe our present day chicken is the result of a pheasant-jungle fowl hybrid, with one exception, the Black Sumatra. It is highly possible that the domestic Sumatra fowl descended directly from a distinct native jungle fowl or Sumatra and is as pure blooded today as when first discovered on that island many years ago. Perhaps the Minorca, Leghorn and other Mediterranean breeds are primarily of jungle fowl origin, but not necessarily the red variety, as it is reasonable to assume the Sumatra fowl contributed to size and color of at least the Minorca. Of course, this statement is refutable by those claiming the White-faced Black Spanish as the original of the Mediterranean breeds.

We hear of giant game fowls, such as Shamo, Aseel, Malay, etc, as being important in the foundation of domestic poultry, furnishing the basic blood for all the dual-purpose and meat breeds of chickens. Without much drain of imagination, it is my conclusion, that these large games possessed pheasant blood rather than that of pure jungle fowl. Their massive size could have easily been the result of a cross-breed, while I doubt very much if the inbreeding of a single species could bring an increased sized in such great proportions.

Inbreeding or linebreeding often reveals recessives because relatives are likely to carry the same recessives and so afford more chance for them to meet and become expressed in the offspring. Crossbreeding brings forth in the offspring the dominants of both parents, providing new combinations not only of established germinal factors, but also of such mutations as occur, and so affords opportunity for relatively rapid germinal change.

The theory of breeding and hybridization could be discussed a number of views that would fill many volumes. Line-breeding and inbreeding have been one of the most controversial topics in the field of animal breeding for many years.

Actually anyone breeding a pure blooded flock is inbreeding inasmuch as all fowls within a breed have some relationship, however, for practical purposes we define inbreeding as the mating of fowls that are more closely related than the average of their breed. All inbreeding is linebreeding and all linebreeding is inbreeding, but the real intent of linebreeding is to mate back to an outstanding individual to retain a high degree of relationship to the individual. This method of breeding is necessary in the origin of a breed to develop the desired characteristics that may be brought out through crossbreeding.

Support for my theory on the origin of the domestic fowl is based on the results of experimental breeding of hybrids by the late Dr J. P. Schneeberger of Ossian, Iowa. Fertile hybrids from chickens crossed with silver pheasant,. ringneck pheasant and Amherst-golden pheasant were obtained by Dr. Schneeberger. In an experiment where a mongrel bantam hen was crossed with a silver pheasant cock a fowl was produced that was more than twice as large as the combined weight of both its parents. Such an increase in size could never be produced through the mating of fowls of the same genus. This is an example of hybrid vigor often observed in first-generation hybrids, but never yet fully explained.

From a single hybrid source, Schneeberger, through selections and linebreeding produced three distinct breeds of chickens in as few as three generations. One family had the size, color and type of the early Silver Pencilled Plymouth Rock, another family would easily pass for Golden Duckwing Leghorns and the third resembled an Old English Game. A cross of Amherst golden pheasant-chicken hybrid to the first-generation ringneck pheasant-chicken hybrid mated back to a three-fourth chicken resulted in Mottled Houdans, complete with a well-shaped crest and the extra toe. In view of these strange results it is quite possible that the giant games mentioned as contributing to our present day farm flocks could have been pheasant-jungle fowl hybrids rather than pure blooded birds produced through the result of selective breeding from the same genus.

Hybrid fowls loose the pheasant characteristics rapidly, even the first cross could be mistaken for a common barnyard fowl. Their actions are similar to those of at Yokohama or Phoenix fowl, which is generally accepted as a chicken. A study of longevity revealed that a first-generation chicken-pheasant hybrid has a very short life-span, usually less than two years. Death is apparently of natural causes as in old age.

Hybridization has little, if any effect on egg production. Apparently linebreeding, environment and feeding governs the number of eggs any fowl will lay. In this respect it should be pointed out that flock averages of one hundred seventy-five eggs per year was obtained from Polish fowls over a 100 years ago. A captive bred pheasant, one or two generations removed from the wild will lay over a hundred eggs in a season if forced for production.

The incubation period of a pheasant-chicken hybrid is usually that of the pheasant, according to the Schneeberger experiments, but decreases to 21 days, the normal period for a chicken when crossed back to a chicken. The incubation period for jungle fowl varies with varieties and as a breeder of Black Sumatra fowls for 15 years I discovered their eggs would hatch one or two days before Barred Plymouth Rocks in the same tray of the incubator.

The domestic fowl adheres closely to the incubation period of 21 days far all breeds to indicate they are of a common source of origin. Jungle fowl of various varieties have different incubation periods, however, they all fall into the same genus. Actually, ornithologists classify jungle fowl and pheasants into the same family, so we must consider domestic fowls right along with them. Unlike jungle fowl, pheasants are divided into a number of genus or species, each genus having a slightly different incubation period.

The crossing of two different genus of pheasants invariably results in offspring of sterile mules. It is rare to find a fertile hybrid pheasant and much rarer a chicken-pheasant hybrid. This condition is known as heterozygous, it is formed by gametes or germ cells dissimilar in regard to a given character, or characters, and producing gametes dissimilar in regard to the character, or characters, in question. Dr. Schneeberger searched far and wide for years before accomplishing his desires in obtaining a hybrid that would lay fertile eggs and then only specimens sued by a pheasant were discovered. To the best of my knowledge there has never been a fertile hybrid produced from a chicken male mated to a pheasant hen.

To explain genetically, the reason a hybrid does not reproduce is that the number of chromosomes in the germ call of the chicken differs from the number 1l1 the germ cell of the pheasant. The matured germ cells of the chicken, can unite with the matured germ Q-s of the pheasant to produce a fertile egg. However, when this fertile egg becomes a mature bird, the uneven number of chromosome makes the maturation of live germ calls extremely rare by either the male or female hybrid.

It is just as difficult to obtain fertility from the offspring of a fertile hybrid crossed back to a pheasant as it is from a pure chicken in a similar union, while fertility is readily obtained from a fertile hybrid mated back to a chicken. It appears that the germ cells in the domestic fowl are of closer character to the hybrid than the pheasant. I cannot explain why one side should appear to be dominating. However, I believe the strong characters are inherent from the jungle fowl, therefore, the basis for the belief that the chicken is of pure jungle fowl origin.