Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/524

 492 F W F W If the Malayan birds be considered distinct, it is to them that the name G. bankiva properly applies. This species is said to be found in lofty forests and in dense thickets, as well as in ordinary bamboo-jungles, and when cultivated land is near its haunts, it may be seen in the fields after the crops are cut in straggling parties of from 10 to 20. The crow to which the cock gives utterance morning and evening is described as being just like that of a Bantam, but never prolonged as in some domestic birds. The hen breeds from January to July, according to the locality; and lays from 8 to 12 creamy-white eggs, occasionally scraping together a few leaves or a little dry grass by way of a nest. The so-called G. giganteus, formerly taken by some ornithologists for a distinct species, is now regarded as a tame breed of G. ferrugineus or bankiva. The second good species is the Grey Jungle-Fowl, G. sonnerati, whose range begins a little to the northward of the limits of the preceding, and it occupies the southern part of the Indian peninsula, without being found elsewhere. The cock has the shaft of the neck-hackles dilated, forming a horny plate, the terminal portion of which is like a drop of yellow sealing-wax. His call is said to be very peculiar, being a broken and imperfect kind of crow, quite unlike that of G. ferrugineus, and impossible, says Jerdon, to describe. The two species, where their respective ranges overlap, occa sionally interbreed in a wild state, and the present readily crosses in confinement with domestic poultry, but the hybrids are nearly always sterile. The third species is the Cingalese Jungle-Fowl, G. stanleyi (the G. lafayettii of some authors), peculiar to Ceylon. This also greatly resembles in plumage some domestic birds, but the cock is red beneath, and has a yellow comb with a red edge, and purplish-red cheeks and wattles. He has also a singularly different voice, his crow being dissyllabic. This bird crosses readily with tame hens, but the hybrids are be lieved to be infertile. The fourth species, G. varius (the G. farcatus of some authors), inhabits Java and the islands eastwards as far as Flores. This differs remarkably from the others in not possessing hackles, and in having a large unserrated comb of red and blue, and only a single chin wattle. The predominance of green in its plumage is another easy mark of distinction. Hybrids between this species and domestic birds are often produced, but they are most commonly sterile. Some of them have been mistaken for distinct species, as those which have received the names of G. emeus and G. temmincki. Several circumstances seem to render it likely that Fowls were first domesticated in Burmah or the countries adjacent thereto, and it is the tradition of the Chinese that they received their poultry from the West about the year 1400 B.C. By the Institutes of Manu, the date of which is variously assigned from 1200 to 800 B.C., the tame Fowl is forbidden, though the wild is allowed to be eaten showing that its domestication was accom plished when they were written. The bird is not men tioned in the Old Testament nor by Homer, though he has AXtKTwp (Cock) as the name of a man, nor is it figured on ancient Egyptian monuments. Pindar men tions it, and Aristophanes calls it the Persian bird, thus indicating it to have been introduced to Greece through Persia, and it is figured on Babylonian cylinders between the Gth and 7th centuries B.C. It is sculptured on the Lycian marbles in the British Museum (circa GOO B.C.), and Blyth remarks (Ibis, 1867, p. 157) that it is there represented with the appearance of a true Jungle-Fowl, for none of the wild Galli have the upright bearing of the tame breed, but carry their tail in a drooping position. For further particulars of these breeds see POULTRY. (A. N.) FOWLER, CHARLES (1792-1867), architect, was born at Collumpton, Devon, May 17, 1792. After serving an apprenticeship of five years at Exeter, he went to London in 1814, and entered the office of David Laing, where lie remained till he commenced practice for himself. His first work of importance was the Court of Bankruptcy in Basinghall Street, finished in 1821. Although he gained in the following year the first premium for a design for the new London bridge, a design by another architect was ultimately agreed upon and carried out. Among Fowler s other designs for bridges is that for the one constructed across the Dart at Totness. He was also the architect for the markets of Covent Garden and Hungerford, the new market at Gravesend, and Exeter lower market ; and besides several churches he designed Devon lunatic asylum (1845), the London fever hospital (1849), and the hall of the Wax Chandlers Company, Gresham Street (1853). For some years he was honorary secretary of the institute of British architects, and he was afterwards created vice-president. He retired from his profession in 1853, and died at Great Marlow, Bucks, September 26, 1867. FOWLER, JOHN (1826-1864), inventor of the steam plough, was born at Melksham, Wilts, July 11, 1826. He learned practical engineering at Middlesborough-on-Tees, and in 1849 invented a machine for laying drain tiles, which was at first worked by horses but afterwards by steam. In 1852 he began experiments in steam cultiva tion, and at the Chester meeting in 1858 he received for his steam plough the Royal Agricultural Society s prize of .500. In conjunction with two partners he established in 1861, at Leeds, the well known firm of Fowler &, Co. He died 4th December 1864. See AGRICULTURE. FOWLER, WILLIAM (c. 1560-1614), one of the poets who frequented the court of James VI. before his accession to the throne of England, was born about the year 1560. After attending St Leonard s College, St Andrews, between 1573-74 and 1578, he seems to have selected the legal profession, and in 1580, when about twenty years of age, he was at Pans studying the civil law. He subsequently became private secretary and master of requests to Anne of Denmark, wife of James VI. On the occasion of the baptism of Prince Henry on 30th August 1594, the pre paration of the pageants exhibited &quot;was by the king s majesty committed to the lord of Lindores and Mr William Fowler&quot;; and the description of these &quot;rareshows and singular inventions &quot; was published at the time. The sister of Fowler, Susannah, was married to Sir John Drummond, Knight, and gentleman usher of the black rod, and was mother of the celebrated poet Drummond of Hawthornden. On the title of some of his works Fowler styles himself P. of Hawick, thus indicating that he was parson or rector of Hawick. He is frequently styled Sir William Fowler, but there is no evidence that he was ever knighted. That Fowler was a man of very superior literary merit is evinced by his works, which are still preserved. The first of these is a collection of sonnets entitled The Tarantula of Love ; the other is a translation from the Italian of the Triumphs of Petrarch. These two manuscripts were presented by his nephew, Drummond of Hawthornden, to the library of the university of Edinburgh in 1626, and it is understood both will shortly be published. Fowler was a great favourite at court. He prefixed a panegyrical sonnet to The Furies, a composition of James VI., while the king in return performed a similar office for his Triumphs of Petrarch, in a strain of versification which for vigour and fluency was vastly superior to his common style. Besides the above, two volumes of his manuscript notes, scrolls of poems, &c., are preserved among the Drummond MSS., in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Specimens of Fowler s verses were published in 1823 by Leyden in his Scottish Descriptive Poems, and are also to be found in other collections illustrating the poetry of the period.