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On Temminck's tailless Ceylon Junglefowl, and how Darwin denied their existence
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2017-12-11
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2019-05-09
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Gallus ecaudatus
Sri Lanka
Museum specimens
Domestic fowls
Sri Lanka
Museum specimens
Domestic fowls
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Abstract
Ceylon Junglefowl was described in 1807 by the Dutch ornithologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. The specimens he examined were tailless (‘rumpless’) and therefore he named them Gallus ecaudatus. In 1831 the French naturalist René Primevère Lesson described a Ceylon Junglefowl with a tail as Gallus lafayetii (= lafayettii), apparently unaware of Temminck's ecaudatus. Subsequently, ecaudatus and lafayettii were realised to be the same species, of which G.stanleyi and G.lineatus are junior synonyms. However, Charles Darwin tried to disprove the existence of wild tailless junglefowl on Ceylon in favour of his theory on the origin of the domestic chicken.
Citation
Hein van Grouw, Wim Dekkers, Kees Rookmaaker "On Temminck's tailless Ceylon Junglefowl, and how Darwin denied their existence," Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club, 137(4), 261-271, (11 December 2017)
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© 2017 The Authors. This is an open access article, available to all readers online. The attached file is the published version of the article.
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0007-1595
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2513-9894