The O-Shamo

I was roaming around the Science Library looking at random books, as you do, when I happened across a book that was a Catalogue of South-East Asian Poultry. I was quite intrigued. The shape and form of Asiatic chooks seems to be quite a bit different to the rounded bulk of European fowl. My Mother had described the chickens she had grown up with and they had pictures of Filipino chicken breeds there. They often have very long legs and tighter plumage. They are actually more similar to the ancestral red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) which is still reputed to be widespread in the wilds of South-east Asia. One particular chicken breed that caught my attention was the Japanese O-Shamo. These birds were imported to Japan from South-East Asia during the 16th century and their name, Shamo is thought to have been derived from "Siam," suggesting their origins. There are two size classes O-Shamo. The O-Shamo are the large birds which weigh about 5 kilos or more and the Chu-Shamo is the smaller bantum type of bird. This chook is a very savage looking creature. It has a skull that juts forwards and presses down on the eyes, giving them a bullish expression. It has a very upright posture thought to give it an advantage at kicking high and hard. They are very muscular and have that lean, mean appearance. The drumsticks are very meaty and the shoulders are broad with the wings held out slightly. It has a small walnut or peacomb and it has no wattles on its throat. Gamefowl generally don't have these and if they do sometimes they are cut off by the owner because they get ripped during fights (cockfighting is a very cruel sport). When I saw this bird I automatically thought "dromaeosaur." I sketched this bird from that book. It was not a clear photo and I wanted a better view of it. Unfortunately my brother showed up wanting to go home so I couldn't finish this sketch. The expression its face would also give some insights into how I design the eyes of Dromornis. You can see that I have added Dromornis profiles on the bottom left hand corner and played around with these ideas.