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A bantam is any small variety of fowl, usually of
A bantam is any small variety of fowl, usually of chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...
or duck
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...
. Most large chicken breeds and several breeds of duck have a bantam counterpart, which is much smaller than the standard-sized fowl, but otherwise similar in most or all respects. A true bantam chicken is naturally small and has no large counterpart.
Etymology
The word ''bantam'' derives from the name of the seaport city of Bantam in westernJava
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...
, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
. European sailors restocking on live fowl for sea journeys found the small native breeds of chicken in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
to be useful, and any such small poultry came to be known as a ''bantam''.
See also
*List of chicken breeds
There are hundreds of chicken breeds in existence. Domesticated for thousands of years, distinguishable breeds of chicken have been present since the combined factors of geographical isolation and selection for desired characteristics created regi ...
* American Bantam Association
The American Bantam Association is a poultry fancy association for breeders of bantam poultry. It publishes the ''Bantam Standard'', with detailed descriptions of all the bantam breeds and varieties that it recognizes; in most – but not all � ...
* Call duck - bantam breed of duck originally bred to attract wild ducks within the range of hunters with guns, now kept as pets
* Dwarfism in chickens
References
* * {{Authority control Poultry Birds of Europe