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{
: POULTRY BOOK.
| By C. E. THORNE,
PAR VAN D PiRESIDE TIBRARY.
COPYRIGHTED, 1881, By FARM AND FIRESIDE Co.
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| NUMBER 16. | JUNE, 1882. i PER YEAR, $3.00.
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THE
COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
A ,sMANUAL FORAEPHE AMERICAN
POWAY Yea).
Wf
Yo
By C. E. THORNE,
i]
AssociaTE Eprror Arm AND FIRESIDE.
PUBLISHEDSB¥/7\, _
Mast, CROWELL & KIRKPATRICK,
SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.
TEE POUR Y BUSINESS.
The poultry yard is generally regarded as one of the most insignificant parts
- of the farming business—frequently as more of a nuisance than anything else,
only to be tolerated to satisfy the whims of the “women folks.” So firmly
grounded is this opinion in the masculine mind that no effort is made to ascer-
tain the real value of the poultry industry, and we turnin vain to the volumes of
National and State statistics for information in regard to it. This being the case
we may be pardoned for doing a little guessing at its probable status, mingling
our guesses with such figures bearing upon the subject, either directly, or indi-
rectly, as may be attainable. For this purpose we shall use chiefly the statistics
of the State of Ohio, they being more complete than others which are accessible
at this date.
From these and the National statistics we find that there are, in round numbers,
about 200,000 farms in Ohio. Upon each of these farms it is safe to say that
there will be found an average of a dozen fowls, or 2,400,000 fowls for the State.
If two millions of these are hens, and they yield but sixty eggs each during the
season, there should be an annual production of 120,000,000 eggs, or ten millions
of dozens, worth, at ten cents per dozen, around million of dollars. If to this
quantity we add the value of the poultry consumed at home and sold in the
markets, we should have at the lowest calculation half a million dollars more,
making a sum equal in value to that of the total’production of rye and barley
together, the produce of 77,000 acres of land; one third as great as the value of
the potato crop; more than half of that of the cheese; about one fourth that of
the wool; about the same as that of the clover seed; one fourth greater than the
combined productions of sorghum, maple molasses and sugar,-and honey;
and ten times as greatas the value of the sweet potato crop, for the year 1879.
If our estimate of the poultry product is extravagant in either direction it is in
that of lowness. Certainly such an industry as this is worthy of attention.
It is true that the larger part of this poultry product is consumed at home; but
it is none the less valuable on that account, for both the flesh and egg of the
fowl are foods of the most nutritious and valuable kinds, and if their consump-
tion were increased ten fold in our farmers’ families, and that of salt pork and
grease diminished in proportion, the annual saving in doctors’ bills and the
greater accomplishment of work consequent upon the improved health which
would thus be obtained, would amount to more, in all probability, than the
whole value of the poultry product now.
With regard to the value of eggs as food the editor of the Boston Journal of
Chemistry says:
“ Eggs, at average prices, are ae cheapest and most nutritious articies
6 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
of diet. Like milk, an egg is a complete food in itself, containing everything
necessary for the development of a perfect animal, as is manifest from the fact
that a chick is formed from it. It seems a mystery how muscles, bones, feath.
ers, and everything that a chicken requires for its perfect development are
made from the yelk and white of an egg; but such is the fact, and it shows how
complete a food an egg is. It is also easily digested, if not damaged in cooking.
Indeed, there is no more concentrated and nourishing food than eggs. The
albumen, oil, and saline matter, are, as in milk, in the right proportion for sus-
taining animal life. Two or three boiled eggs, with the addition of a slice or
two of toast, will make a breakfast sufficient for a man, and good enough for a
king.
“According to Dr. Edward Smith, in his treatise on ‘Food,’ an egg weighing an
ounce and three quarters contains one hundred and twenty grains of carbon, and
seventeen and three quarter grains of nitrogen, or 15.25 per cent. of carbon
and two percent of nitrogen. The value of one pound of eggs, as,food for sus-
taining the active forces of the body, is to the value of one pound of lean meat
as 1584 to900. As a flesh-producer, one pound of eggs is about equal to one
pound of beef.
“A hen may be calculated to consume one bushel of corn yearly, and to lay
ten dozens or fifteen pounds of eggs. Thisis equivalent to saying that three and
one tenth pounds of corn will produce, when fed to a hen, five sixths of a pound
of eggs; but five sixths of a pound of pork requires about five pounds of corn
for its production. Taking into account the nutriment in each, and the com-
parative prices of the two on an average, the pork is about three times as costly
a food as the eggs, while it is certainly less healthful.”
One of the reasons why thie poultry business has received no more attention
is that it cannot be made a large business. The barn-yard fow] is so constituted
that it does not thrive when massed in large numbers, but only reaches its high-
est perfection when allowed to follow the customs of its progenitors in the Indian
jungles, and wander at will in small flocks. This peculiarity has prevented the
profitable handling of poultry as a specialty, except in the way of breeding im-
proved stock to be sold at fancy prices, since it has not yet been found possible
to collect a large number of fowls into one management and maintain them in
health, without a greater outlay than would be justified by the returns obtained.
Under the conditions »f ordinary barn-yard poultry-keeping the fowls gather
most of their subsistence from materials which would otherwise be wasted ;
while the time oceupied in their care, being chiefly that of otherwise unproduc-
tive members of the household, is not felt; consequently, whatever they may
yield in the way of eggs and flesh is so much clear gain. When, however, the
natural and waste supplies of food are exhausted; thatis, the insects, weed-seeds
and grass obtained upon the range, and the waste food picked up in the barn-
yard, scratched out of the manure heap, or out of the waste thrown from the
household table, an element of outlay begins to enter into the calculation which
may become so great as to counterbalance all the profit obtained.
It is hoped that this book may be the means of suggesting such methods of
economizing in the care and feeding of poultry, that these expenses may be so
reduced as to render the enlarging of the flock on every farm, not only a justifi-
THE POULTRY BUSINESS. i
able, but a profitable step; at the same time we would not encourage any one to
go into the business of raising fowls and eggs for market with the expectation
of becoming suddenly rich at it. It is a business involving but little manual
labor, and that of alight character, but it does require daily exercise in the open
air; hence it is admirably suited for women, and for those who are infirm in
health. To such it offers a small remuneration, and if combined with other
light employments, as bee keeping, some branches of small fruit culture, and sill
production, would afford a reliable means of support to many whose circum.
stances do not allow them to engage in more laborious employments.
We have in mind widows, who have been left with families of small children
dependent upon them, but without any means of support except the needle ;
maiden ladies, whom life’s lottery has left without a household mate and pro-
tector; persons of infirm health, who have neither the strength nor facilities for
the severe bodily or mental exertion which is required in other branches of indus-
try; the families of laborers, whose scanty earnings are but barely sufficient to
feed and clothe the wife and little ones: All these, if so situated that they can
have the use of a small tract of land, may greatly lighten the burdens of life by
the keeping of poultry, and if we do not present this business in the glowing
light that some enthusiasts do, it is that such as these may find in our book no
incentives to extravagant anticipation, only to be followed by disappointment;
but may beled to begin cautiously and work carefully until experience shall
have taught them with the least possible loss—for experience teaches only by
losses, or what is the same, by failures to attain possible gains—the most suitable
methods for their estates and conditions.
The foregoing remarks apply simply to the breeding of poultry for flesh and
eggs; the breeding of fancy poultry is a separate business, and one which re-
quires special adaptitude for success, as well as a knowledge which can only be
bought by experience. It is not a business to be picked up in a day, any more
than the breeding of horses and cattle. The same principles underlie the whole
theory of breeding, and these principles are only to be mastered by years of
study and practice; therefore we would advise those of limited means who have
aspirations in this direction, to begin with one or two varieties of fowls; learn
their habits and needs, and increase their number only in proportion as this
knowledge is obtained. It isa knowledge which cannot be obtained from books,
although books may be of such assistance that no poultry breeder can afford to
do without them; but the information which they give must be mingled with
personal experience, and thus digested and assimilated before it can be of much
practical value.
This business has grown to great dimensions within a few years, owing to the
facilities afforded by the express companies for the interchange of fowls and
eggs, by which they may be senthundreds of miles with perfect safety, as far as
the fowls are concerned, and with but little risk to the eggs. This business started
with the introduction of the large Asiatic breeds, whose superior size and other
desirable qualities made them generally attractive, and now we have, in the es-
tablishments of our fanciers, representatives of almost every breed of fowl
known.
ite — re
Arrothey tay
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE LOMESTIC FOWL.
With regard to the origin of the domestic fowl, Charles Darwin, in his Vari-
ation of Animals and Lf lants under Domestication, says, in speaking of the various
species of Gallus: ‘The G. Sonneratii does not range into the northern parts of
India; according to Col. Sykes it presents at different heights on the Ghauts
two strongly-marked varieties, perhaps deserving to be called species. It was at
one time thought to be the primitive stock of all our domestic breeds, and this
shows that it closely approaches the common fowl in general structure; but its
hackles partially consist of highly peculiar, horny laminw, transversely banded
with three colors, and I have met with no authentic account of any such char-
acter having been observed in any domestic breed. This species also differs
greatly from the common fowl, in the comb being finely serrated, and in the
loins being destitute of true hackles. Its voice is utterly different. It crosses
readily in India with domestic hens, but the hybrids thus produced are almost
absolutely sterile when crossed among themselves or with either parent. * * From
these facts we may reject this species as being the parent of any domestic breed.
“Ceylon possesses a fowl peculiar to this island; namely, G. Stanleyii. This species
approaches so closely (except in coloring of the comb) to the domestic fowl, that
Messrs. E. Layard and Kellaert would have considered it, as they inform me,
as one of the parent stocks, had it not been for its singularly different voice.
This bird, like the last, crosses readily with tame hens, but the produce is sterile,
and inherits the peculiar voice of G, Stanleyti. This species may then, in all
probability, be rejected, as one of the primitive stocks of the domestic fowl.
“ Java, and the islands eastward, as far as Flores, are inhabited by G. varius
(or furcatus), which differs in so many characters—green plumage, unserrated
comb, and single median wattle—that no one supposes it to have been the parent
of any one of our breeds; yet, as Lam informed by Mr. Crawfurd, hybrids are
commonly raised between the male G. varius and the common hen, and are kept
for their great beauty, but are invariably sterile.
“The last species to be mentioned; namely, G. bankiva, has a much wider geo-
graphical range than the three previous species ; it inhabits northern Indiaas far
west as Sinde, and ascends the Himalaya to a height of four thousand feet; it in-
habits Burmah, the Malay peninsula, the Indo-Chinese countries, the Philippine
Islands, and the Malayan archipelago as far eastward as Timor. This species
varies considerably in the wild state. Mr. Blyth informs me that the specimens,
both male and female, brought from near the Himalaya, are rather paler colored
than those from other parts of Phdia; whilst those from the Malay peninsula and
Java, are brighter than the Indianbirds. Ihaveseen specimens from these coun-
tries, and the difference of tint in the hackles was conspicuous. The Malayan
[9]
10 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
hens were a shade redder on the neck and breast than the Indian hens. The
Malayan males generally had a red ear-lappet, instead of a white one asin India;
but Mr. Blyth has seen one Indian specimen without the white ear-lappet. The
legs are leaden blue in the Indian, whereas they show some tendency to be yel-
lowish in the Maiayan and Javan specimens. In the former Mr. Blyth finds the
tarsus remarkably variable in length. According:to Temminck the Timor specs
imens differ as a local race from that of Java. These several wild varities have
not as yet been ranked as distinet species; if they should,as is not unlikely,
be hereafter thus ranked, the cireumstance would be quite immaterial as far as
the parentage and differences of our domestic breeds are concerned. The
wild G. bankiva agrees most closely with the black-breasted red Game breed, in
coloring and in all other respects, except in being smaller, and in the tail being
carried more horizontally. But the manner in which the tail is carried is highly
variable in many of our breeds, for the tail slopes much in the Malays, is erect
in the Games and some other breeds, and is more than erect in the Dorkings,
Bantams, etc. There is one other difference; namely, that in G. bankiva, accord-
ing to Me Blyth, the neck-hackles when first moulted are replaced during two
or three months, not by other hackles, as with our domestic poultry, but by short,
blackish feathers. Mr. Brent, however, has remarked that these black feathers
remain in the wild bird after the development of the lower hackles, and appear
in the domestic bird at the same time with them; so that the only difference is
that the lower hackles are replaced more slowly in the wild bird than in the
tame bird; but as confinement is known sometimes to affect the masculine
plumage, this slight difference cannot be considered of any importance. It is a
significant fact that the voice of both the male and female G. bankiva, closely
resembles, as Mr. Blythand others have noted, the voice of both sexes of the
common domestic Lowe but une aaa note ce the ¢ crow of the wild OL is rather
less prolonged. * % % Ht se a
“From the extremely close resemblance in color, general structure, and espe.
cially in voice, between Gallus bankiva and the Game fowl; from their fertility, as
far as this has been ascertained, when crossed; from the possibility of the wild
species being tamed, and from its varying in the wild state, we may confidently
look at it as the parent of the most typical of all the domestic breeds; namely, the
Game fowl. It is a significant fact that almost all the naturalists in India who
are familiar with G. bankiva, believe that it is the parent of most or all of our
domestic breeds. But even if it be admitted that G. bankiva is the parent of the
Game breed, yet it may be urged that other wild species have been the parents of
the other domestic breeds, and that these species still exist, though unknown,
in some countries, or have become extinct. The extinction, however, of several
species of fowls is an improbable hypothesis, seeing that the four known species
have not become extinct in the most anciently and thickly populated regions of
the East. There is, in fact, only one kind of domesticated bird: ; namely, the
Chinese goose, or Anser cygnoides, of which the wild parent ravi is said to be
still unknown, or extinct. For the discovery of new, or the re-discovery of old
species of Gallus, we must not look, as fanciers often look, to the whole world.
The larger gallinaceous birds, as Mr. Blyth has remarked, generally have a re-
stricted range; we see this well illustrated in India, where the genus Gallus
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE DOMESTIC FOWT. 11
inhabits the base of the Himalaya, and is succeeded higher up by Gallophasis,
and still higher by Phasianus. Australia, with its islands, is out of the question
as the home of unknown species of the genus. It is also as improbable that
Gallus should inhabit South America as that a humming-bird should be foundin
the old world. From the character of the other gallinaceous birds of Africa it
is not probable that Gallus is an African genus. We need not look to the west-
ern part of Asia, for Messrs? Blyth and Crawfurd, who have attended to this
subject, doubt whether Gallus ever existed in a wild state even as far west as
Persia. Although the earliest Greek writers speak of the fowl asa Persian bird,
this probably merely indicates its line of importation. For the discovery of un-
known species we must look to India, to the Indo-Chinese countries, and to the
northern parts of the Malay archipelago. The southern portion of China is the
most likely country; but as Mr. Blyth informs me, skins have been exported
from China during a long period, and live birds are largely kept there in aviaries,
so that any native species of Gallus would probably have become known. Mr.
Bircb, of the British Museum, has translated for me passages from a Chinese
encyclopedia, published A. D. 1609, but compiled from more ancient docu-
ments, in which it is said that fowls are creatures of the West, and were intro-
duced into the East (that is, China) in adynasty 1400 B. c. Whatever may be
thought of so ancient a date, we see that the Indo-Chinese and Indian regions
were formerly considered as the source of the domestic fowl. From these several
considerations we must look to the present metropolis of the genus, namely, to
the south-eastern parts of Asia, for the discovery of species which were formerly
domesticated, but are now unknown in the wild state; and the most experienced
ornithologists do not consider it probable that such species will be discovered.
“Purely bred Game, Malay, Cochin, Dorking, Bantam, and, as I hear from
Mr. Tegetmeier, Silk fowls may frequently or occasionally be met with, which
are almost identical in plumage with G. bankiva. This is a fact well deserving
attention, when we reflect that these breeds rank among the most distinct.
Fowls thus colored are called by amateurs ‘black-breasted reds.’ Hamburgs
properly, have a very different plumage; nevertheless, as Mr. Tegetmeier in-
forms me, ‘the greatest difficulty in breeding cocks of the golden-spangled
variety is their tendency to have black breasts and red backs.’ The males of
white Bantams and white Cochins, as they come to maturity, often assume a
- yellowish or saffron tinge ; and the longer neck-hackles of black Bantam cocks,
when two or three years old, not uncommonly become ruddy; these latter Ban-
tams occasionally ‘even moult brassy winged, or actually red shouldered.’ So that
in these several cases we see a plain tendency to ateversion tothe hues of G.
bankiva, even during the lifetime of the individual bird.”
With regard to the history of the fowl Mr. Darwin says further :
“Rutimeyer found no remains of the fowl in the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings.
Itis not mentioned in the Old Testament; nor is it figured on the ancient Egyptian
monuments. It is not referred to by Homer nor Hesiod (about 900 B. c.); but
is mentioned by Theognis and Aristophanes between 400 and 500 8B. c. It is
figured on some of the Babylonian cylinders, of which Mr. Layard sent me an
impression, between the sixth and seventh centuries B. C., and on the Harpy
Tomb in Lycia about 600 B. C., so that we may feel pretty confident that the
12 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
fowl reached Europe somewhere near the sixth century B. Cc. It had traveled
still further westward by the time of the Christian era, for it was found in Brit-
ain by Julius Cesar. In India it must have been domesticated when the Insti-
tutes of Manu were written; that is, according to Sir. W. Jones, 1200 B. C., but,
according to the later authority of Mr. H. Wilson, only 800 B. C., for the do-
mestic fowl is forbidden, while the wild is permitted to be eaten. toe R
“ Suffeient materials do not exist for tracing the history of the different breeds.
About the commencement of the Christian era, Columella mentions a five-toed,
fighting breed, and some provincial breeds; but we know nothing more about
them. He also alludes to dwarf fowls; but these cannot have been the same
with our Bantams, which, as Mr. Crawfurd has shown, were imported from
Japan into Bantam in Java.
Where several hens are sitting at the same time, it is well to have each nest
connected with a covered run-way, in which food and water may be placed for
the hen, and which will prevent her returning to the wrong nest, or being dis-
turbed by the attempts of other hens to lay to her. Such an arrangement is
shown in Figs. 3 and 4, which represent the plan of a sitting-house contrived by
a correspondent of Farm and Fireside from Hillsdale, Pa., who writes under
the nom de plume of Keystone:
INCUBATION. 19
This house is made for fifty hens, and is twelve feet long, from east to west, by
eight feet wide, from north to south. There are doors at the east and west ends, and
sliding glass windows, six by eight feet in size, in the south side. Boards six
feet long by one foot wide are set on edge under the north side, in such a way as
to form boxes one foot square inside the house, and one foot by five feet outside.
The inside boxes are used for laying and hatching, and are connected by doors
with the outside boxes, which are used for feed-boxes, and are covered with
laths nailed so close together that the young chick cannot get out. The inside
boxes have lids, which are shut down when the hen is set, and the door to the
outside box is then opened. Feed, water, gravel, ete., are placed in the outside
box, and the hen will thus be able to help herself without being interfered with
by other hens.”
Fie. 4.
Lice sometimes become so troublesome as to drive sitting hens from their nests.
On this account a nest-box should never be used a second time without thorough
cleansing and whitewashing, or fumigating with tobacco smoke. Should the hen
become lousy, sulphur or pyrethrum may be dusted under her feathers, but no
20 THE COMPLET#H POULTRY BOOK.
grease should be used, as it will get upon the eggs and prevent them from hatch
ing by closing the pores. The placing of tobacco stems among the litter with
which the nest is made has been found beneficial. Flowers of sulphur is also
used in the same manner.
The disinelination of the hen to sit anywhere but in the nest which she has
first chosen may be overcome, and the visits of intruders prevented, by the use
of a door of coarse wire netting, which will be found serviceable for many pur-
poses in the poultry-yard. If the hen cannot be permitted to forage at will,
food and water should be placed within reach, and her eggs should be occasion-
ally sprinkled with water. The turning of the eggs to cause them to be evenly
heated is entirely unnecessary, but if any should by any accident be broken,
those remaining should be washed in tepid water, to prevent the clogging of
the pores of the shells.
On the eighth or ninth day of incubation, the fertility of the eggs may be
tested by holding them between the eye and a bright light, or more certainly by
means of the “egg tester” shown in Fig. 5, which represents a tin cup three
inches high and two and a half in diameter, narrowed at the top so as to leave a
round opening of such size as to admit the end of an egg, and having an oval
mirror fastened at an angle of forty-five degrees with the axis of the instrument, as
INGUBATION—CARE OF THE CHICK 21
shown by the dotted line, opposite which, and one inch above the bottom of the
cup, is an opening one fourth of an inch in diameter and furnished with an eye
piece. Enough light will be transmitted through the egg, if it be infertile, to
form a distinct image of the yelk upon the mirror, while if the egg be fertile the
allantois will have extended over the inner surface to such an extent as to ren-
der the whole opaque. Experience will enable one to decide upon the fertility
of the eggs as early as the fifth or sixth days of incubation, at which time those
withdrawn as infertile may still be used for certain culinary operations, while
those which haye been sat upon for eight or ten days may be used advantage-
ously in the food of the young chicks.
Further than this, all handling of the eggs should be avoided, and when they
begin to hatch, especially, they should be let alone. A chick that has not
strength enough to work its way out of the shell will not be worth anything
after it gets out; while attempts to assist it are likely to do more harm than
good, by prematurely rupturing the blood-vessels of the allantois, which cor-
responds in this respect to the after-birth in animals, and this may cause the
chick to bleed to death. The chicks should be left in the nest until the hen
leads them off, unless there has been so great a difference in the age of the eggs
as to cause a number of them to be many hours later than the rest in hatching,
in which ease it may be necessary to remove them to prevent the hen from leay-
ing the nest. The better plan, however, is to confine her there, giving her food
and water (the young chicks will need nothing during the first day), and leave
the chickens with her, as they will not thrive so well anywhere else as with the
hen.
CARE OF THE CHICK.
The young chick, when first hatched, has iust filled itself with the egg yelk,
and will need no other food until that is fully digested, or from twelve to twenty-
four hours. As the first food of the young human or quadruped is its mother’s
milk, so there is no other food so suited to the wants of the newly hatched
chick as that which has heretofore sustained it, or eggs. To give this food in the
best condition beat up an egg with two tablespoonful’s of milk and set it ina
warm place until it coagulates, or “sets” into a custard, and feed it in this con-
dition. This ismuch better than boiling it hard. This food should be continued
for three or four days, adding gradually a larger and larger proportion of bread
crumbs soaked in sweet milk,—(sour food is injurious to young chickens, hence
only so much should be given as will be eaten clean at each feed),—and of oat
meal, or a mixture of bran, oat meal and Indian meal, scalded and fed eold.
22 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
If the chickens are confined in coops a very little finely chopped meat should
be given once a day,—a piece as large as a walnut will be sufficient for a dozen
chicks—and also some form of green food, as chopped grass, cabbage leaves, or
lettuce. Whether confined or not a little cracked corn or wheat screenings
should be added to their food after they are a few days old, and the -quantity
gradually increased as they grow older. Soaked bread should only be given in
very small quantity, as it tends to produce diarrhea. Milk should be given but
sparingly at first, and then only in the shape of cottage cheese, but the quantity
may be increased as they grow older, and for fowls two months or more of
age it may be given sweet or sour, and will be founda cheap and acceptable food.
If the hens are quiet, and other circumstances do not forbid, the chickens will
be more thrifty if allowed to range at will; but if the hens are inclined to take
jl
Fig. 8.
them so far from the house as to worry them out, or to expose them to hawks and
vermin, or if neighbors are so close as to render confinement necessary to pre-
vent trespass, it may be necessary to coop the hen. In this case the coop should
be located upon grass land if possible; but it will be found an advantage to have
a plot of plowed land near by, by stirring which occasionally, and placing the
coops upon it in dry weather, the chickens will soon be taught to hunt for
worms. The coops should be moved daily, as the souring of the food and the
CAR ES OF UT HES CHE CE 23
excrement of the chickens very soon renders the ground under them a propa-
gator of disease. Fresh water should be given daily, and if given in shallow iron
dishes or in dishes containing iron scraps, the rust which forms will be beneficial
to the chickens in preventing disease. No straw should be placed under the
coops, as the young chicks will be more liable to become entangled in it and
\
=
Fie. 9.—Coop with Floor.
trampled by the hen. It will be well, however, to place fresh sand or sifted ashes
under them frequently, especially if they cannot be moved every day.
In Figs. 6 to 12 we give several designs for coops. Fig. 8 represents a square
box without top or bottom, three sides being made of common barn-boards
twelve inches wide by two feet long, and the fourth side slatted with plastering
lath, The cover is made of three pieces of barn-board, each twelve inches wide
by thirty inches long, nailed to two gables cut out of six-inch fencing. The
Fie. 10. ice
whole is made of pine, and is very light and convenient. Fig. 9 represents a
triangular coop made with a floor and door in order to exclude rats. The man-
ner of making and using the floor is shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The same floor
, may be used in the coop first described, and a door may be made toslide in behind
the slats. A hen-coop should never havea floor in itif itcan be avoided, however,
as it is necessary to the health of both hen and chickens that they should have
access to the ground, If a floor is used it must be frequently cleansed; if there
24 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
be no floor this cleansing is effected by moving the coop to a fresh spot each
morning, by which means the hen may be furnished daily with fresh grass,
which she needs.
Figs 12 and 13 give designs for coops where it is desirable, on account of
hawks, cats, or for other reasons, to confine the chicks as well as the hen.
In Fig. 12 the runway is latticed with lath, wire or twine. In Fig. 18 with lath,
although either of the other materials may be used here also. Twine netting
is made for these purposes, being tarred for outside work. It is cheap and very
convenient, especially when more than one breed of fowls is kept. By its use
portions of the lawn or garden may be temporarily set off to the use of the
Fig. 13.
fowls, while the tarred netting may be advantageously used in the more perma-
nent divisions of the poultry-yard.
Whether the hens be cooped, or allowed to run at large, a feeding-pen should
be provided for the chicks when they are afew weeks old. For this purpose the 4
pen shown in Fig. 14 will be found very convenient. To make it, get out fourteen
strips one inch thick by two inches wide and six feet long; upon the edges of
DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF THE YOUNG CHICKEN. , 25
these strips nail plastering laths cut to half lengths (two feet), so as to make
seven hurdles, each two feet wide by six feet long, nailing the laths one and one
half inchesapart. Set four of these hurdles together so as to make a square pen,
tying them or nailing them together at the corners, and cover this pen with the
ia. 14.—feeding Pen.
remaining three hurdles. This will make a penin which the chicks can be fed with-
out being robbed by the greedy hens or the larger chickens, and the little fel-
lows will soon learn to run to it when ealled. These hurdles will also be found
very convenient for making the covered runways shown in Figs. 12 and 13.
DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF THE YOUNG CHICKEN.
The young chick has little to fear from disease, if it be properly fed and housed.
Its worst enemy is the gapes, which is not a disease, but a result of the irritation
caused by a parasitic worm, Sclerostoma syngamus, which finds its way into the
windpipe and so impedes respiration until it finally causes death. The complete
history of this parasite has not yet been ascertained. It is of a reddish color;
the female is five eighths to three fourths of an inch in length, the male about one
eighth. Ina gaping chicken these worms may be found to the number of three
to six or more pairs, and the body of the female will be found to contain ova of
various stages of development, up to the completely grown embryo. It would
seem that these worms must have another stage of existence, either in the body
of some other insect or animal, or in the soil, but this point has not been investi-
gated. The probability is, however, that this stage is passed in the soil, and that
they are capable of existing there in the pupe state until awakened into life
again by being taken into the stomach or lungs of the bird. The gapes seems
to be more troublesome on a moist soil, and in this it shows a similarity to the
disease called Paper-skin in sheep, which is caused by the presence of a thread-
like worm, Strongylus filaria, in the bronchial tubes of that animal, and which,
like the selerostoma, passes from our knowledge after leaving the body of its
host. ‘
The remedies for the gapes are several. The worms may be removed by mak-
ing a loop of horse-hair, introducing it into the windpipe of the chicken, giving
it two or three twists, and withdrawing it. A still more satisfactory method is to
take a feather, strip off the web to within balfan inch of the end, moisten, insert
26 THE COMPLETE POUITRY BOOK.
to the bottom of the windpipe, and withdraw as before. If the feather be dip-
ped in kerosene, turpentine, or a weak solution of carbolic acid, such worms as
are not caught will be killed, and immediately sneezed up by the chicken. An-
other method is to fumigate with sulphur or carbolie acid, to accomplish which,
place a hot brick in the bottom of a box, cover it with a board having an inch
augur-hole in the centre (the board is to prevent burning the chickens’ feet), and
through this augur-hole drop upon the hot brick a teaspoonful of flowers of
sulphur, or a few drops of earbolie acid; put in the chickens, and cover the box
for a few seconds. This must be done very carefully, er the chicks as well as
worms will be killed. Still another method, recommended by correspondents of
the Poultry World, is to confine the chickens inasmall box, with a coarse cotton
or linen cloth stretched over the top. Upon this cloth place a quantity of finely
pulverized lime, and with a stick gently tap the cloth, so that the lime-dust will
sift through. This will cause the birds to sneeze, and the worms will be thrown
up ina slimy mass, without any danger of any being driven further down. What-
ever remedy is adopted, it is essential that allthe worms should be burnt, as well
as all chicks that may die of the disease, as even if the worms themselves are
killed, their eggs may not be, and will go on propagating the evil.
Next to gapes, lice are perhaps the most to be dreaded of the foes of the young
chick; and to keep these pests in check requires constant vigilance. Prevention
is emphatically the remedy here. The coops should be whitewashed, inside and
out, and all parts of the buildings, nest-boxes, ete., used by the fowls should be
thoroughly whitewashed, or washed with water in which tobacco stems have
been steeped, with petroleum, or dilute carbolie acid, and the oftener this is
done the better. If, in spite of precautions, the lice make their appearance,
then grease the hen on the back and under the wings with a mixture of lard and
kerosene, using only enough of the latter to make the grease run easily, and be-
ing careful to keep it out of the eyes; or, what is better, apply pyrethrum, or
Persian insect powder, for sale at all drug stores and which, when fresh and
pure, is a certain remedy for these pests. It is applied by blowing it up under
the feathers by means of a small bellows which should accompany each package.
Unless the lice are very bad it will not be necessary to grease chicks which the
hen is brooding, as they will get enough from her.
Rats sometimes give great trouble in the poultry-yard, carrying off chickens of
two and three months of age in large numbers. When they go at this they gen-
erally have a hiding place under some pile of rubbish tc which they drag the
chickens to eat them. If this place can be found, and the partly eaten chickens
dusted with strychnine, it may abate the evil, but the surest riddance will be to
organize a rat hunt and clean out the whole premises.
Hawks are sometimes very troublesome, and very difficult to manage. Insuch
cases the following device, communicated to Farm and Fireside by a corre-
spondent frem Talbot county, Georgia, would certainly be worth a trial: ‘Place
a live chicker. in a large rat-trap, bird-ecage, or lattice-box, fasten a steel trap to
the top of the box or cage, and elevate them upon a pole or high stump where
the chicken can be distinctly seen by the hawk. If properly arranged, you may
expect to find his hawkship caught in the snare.”
(271
CHAPTER III.
FALL AND WINTER MANAGEMENT.
We have followed the fowl from the egg to the half-grown chicken, or from
March to the first of August. It now remains for us to trace the growth of the
young chicken through the remainder of the year, in doing which it will be
more convenient to include the general management of the whole poultry-yard,
since from this date both young and old fowls may be allowed to run together,
except where their separation may be made necessary for breeding purposes,
Heretofore it has been assumed that the laying and breeding fowls, aside from
those actually engaged in the rearing of broods, have had but little care, but
have been expected to find their living on the range. If the range be large
enough, this will be found not only the most economical plan, but that most
conducive to the health of the fowls, as the exercise gained in hunting for food,
and the variety of insect and green food thus obtained, will cause a thriftier
growth than can be obtained by any artificial feeding.
Should the range be limited, however, and feeding on that account be rendered
necessary, regard should be had to the natural habits of the fowl, by giving in
the food a due proportion of meat and of green vegetables. For the meat supply
butchers’ offal is the best; soap-house scraps may be used in small quantity, if
fresh. For the grain food, wheat screenings or barley are the best for the chief
supply. Cornshould be given in moderate quantities only, on account of its ten-
dency to fatten. Sorghum seed isan excellent food for poultry; milk may be given
liberally, and skim-milk, sweet or sour, mixed with wheat bran, makes an excel-
‘lent food. Green vegetabes of all sorts, especially cabbages and onions, should
be given regularly. Should there be signs of too great looseness of the bowels,
diminish the allowance of green and soft food, and increase that of grain. Pure
water should, of course, be always in reach, and it is well to keep it in iron
vessels, or to add occasionally a small lump of copperas (sulphate of iron), asa
tonic, and preventive of roup and cholera. A dust bath of dry earth, sifted
ashes, or both, should be always within reach, and the perches and inside of
the hen-house should be kept sweet by whitewashing, and by cleaning the
manure from the floors. Lime, insome form, should be constantly within reach,
and the best form is that of oyster-shells pounded fine, or of ground bone. The
latter may be mixed with the food to advantage, in the proportion of a table-
spoonful two or three times a week to each dozen fowls. Without some such
supply as this the egg-shells are liable to become soft. This mode of feeding
may be continued to the commencement of winter, modifying the amount of
food given to suit the conditions of rangeand season, as a protracted drouth may
so shorten the natural food supply that fowls which have been maintaining
themselves on the range may now require to be fed.
With the approach of winter we must prepare for furnishing a larger propor-
tion of the food supply of our fowls, and ss a large proportion of the winter food
30 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
of animals—from five eighths to the whole—is consumed in the maintenance of the
animal heat, it is evident that whatever arrangements we may make for pre-
venting the radiation of the heat of our fowls into the surrounding atmosphere,
so far as these arrangements are compatible with health, will effect a positive
Vic. 15.—Lean-to Poultry House.
Saving in the quantity of food consumed, saying nothing of the comfort we our-
selves will take in the thought that the dumb animals dependent upon us are
not being mercilessly exposed to the cutting blasts of the wintry nights.
Fie. 16. L Fie. 17.
The essential points of afowl-house are; exclusion of all currents of air, venti-
lation, light and cleanliness. it should be situated on the south side of other
buildings, if possible, and should have, at any rate, a southern exposure, with a
liberal supply of glass in its southern walls. Attached to it should be a yard
where the fowls may exercise in pleasant weather, and if this yard contain the
FALL AND WINTER MANAGEMENT. 31
manure heap from the horse-stable, so much the better. A small, low shed,
built on the south side of a tight board fence, where the fowls may sun them-
selves and receive their food on pleasant days, will be thoroughly appreciated.
Fig. 18.—Family Poultry House, Ground Plan.
In Fig. 15, a small lean-to is shown, situated in the angle of a barn. The
ground plan is shown in Fig. 16, in which the roosting poles are shown at A, and
the nest-boxes at BB. The nest-boxes may be situated under aslanting board, as
LUT TO HTT LUT
SOS SSIS
eens
SSS SOS SCS
SSCS SSS SS
Fie. 19.—Family Poultry House: F <¥
| shown in Fig. 17, with a roosting-pole fastened to brackets above it, provided so
_ much roosting space be needed.
32 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
The roosting-poles should not be more than a foot from the ground, if the heavy
Asiatic fowls are kept, as in flying down from higher roosts they are apt to injure
their feet, producing the deformity called ‘bumble foot.’ All the poles should
be at the same height to prevent the struggle for the highest perch, which is apt
to ensue if they are at different heights. For the larger fowls especially, the
poles should be at least three inches in diameter.
The nest-boxes may be made stationary, but a better plan is tomake them after
the plan shown in Fig. 1, so that they can be moved from place to place if desir-
able. In this case they should all be of the same size, to facilitate the changing of
one with another.
In Fig. 18 is given the ground plan, and in Fig. 19 the elevation, of a family
poultry house, intended to stand unconnected with other buildings, and to ac-
Fic. 20. Self Cleaning Poultry Yy aad
commodate fifty fowls. For this number it should be about twelve by eighteen
feet in size. A represents the laying room; B the roosting room; C the sitting
room, and Da bin for grain. The nest boxes are shown in the partition between
the laying and sitting rooms, and are intended to slide back and forth; but a
better plan might be to make them portable, and connect those of the sitting-
room with covered runs on the outside of the house, as shown in Fig. 4, remov-
the bin D to the opposite side of the room.
In Figs. 20 and 21 a self cleaning poultry house is shown; the roosts being in
the gables, over the inclined floors, which are made of one by three inch slats,
set on edge, and about an inch apart, so that the droppings will fall through.
Where several breeds of fowls are kept, the house represented in Figs. 18 and
19 may be extended to any length, and divided into sections of three rooms each,
constructed on the plan shown, and opening into runways both in front and rear.
A continuous passage way may be provided by changing the partition betweer
the laying and roosting rooms.
The windows of the poultry-house should be inti on ci iats or made toslide
¢
FALL AND WINTER MANAGEMENT. 33
horizontally, and should have wire netting on the inside, for the double purpose
of protecting the glass, and of confining the fowls, if desired, when the windows
are open.
The form of the poultry-house is but a secondary matter, the essential points
Fig. 21.—Skeleion of Self-Cleaning Poultry House.
being those previously enumerated, and these may be combined as well in a
cave dug in the south side of a hill, as in the most expensive poultry-house, pro-
vided good judgment be exercised. In fact, such a house as that shown in Fig.
22 would present some decided advantages to those who particularly desire winter
Fie. 22.—Hillside Poultry House.
eggs, as the shelter and warmth provided by a building so situated would be of
great assistance in egg production.
It is difficult to say which is the most important of the requisites for a poultry
house which we have enumerated; but probably ventilation should come first, as
if that is neglected, roup and other diseases are absolutely sure to follow. Next
2
34 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
to ventilation we should place warmth, to be secured by building in sheltered
positions, and so arranging the building as to cut off all draughts of air. If it
be necessary to build in an exposed situation the walls should be made double.
Light may not be neglected, as the fowls will neither thrive nor even stay in a
dark house, while cleanliness certainly may not be put at the end of the list, as
filth is a certain breeder of disease.
After the providing of shelter the next pointin the winter care of our fowls is
to provide them with an abundant supply of suitable food. Fowls may be win-
tered, assome farmers do their other stock, insuch a way that they will not only give
no return for the little food they may chance to get, but will lose the flesh they
have accumulated in the summerand fall, thus reaching the spring in such a con-
dition that they must spend months in re-accumulating their necessary working
capital of flesh and fat before they can begin the production of eggs. Such
management is even more wasteful than the other extreme of over-feeding, and
thus inducing laziness, which prevents the fowls taking the exercise in getting
their food which is necessary to health. The proper mean between these two is
the most readily attained where the fowls are kept in flocks of such size that they
can find most of their living among the wastes of the manure pile and barn-
yard, these being supplemented by the scraps from the household table, a regu-
Fic. 23.—Feeding Box.
lar allowance of green food in some form, such as the trimmings of cabbazges,
small potatoes boiledeand mixed with meal, and beets and turnips served in the
same way. Unless they get a considerable allowance of meat in the table-
scraps this should also be provided.
In general, where the fowls are fed regularly, it is as well to throw the food
on the ground and let them seratch for it, the exercise thus gained being bene-
ficial. When it is not desirable to feed in this manner, from inability to attend
to them regularly, or from other reasons, a feeding-box like that shown in Fig.
23 may be used, in which a quantity of food may be placed, and the fowls allowed
to help themselves at will. Afteronce becoming satisfied, they will do this with-
out danger to themselves, and will consume no more food in this way than when
fed by hand all they will eat.
The box is so arranged that the grain falls from the main hopper 8B, into the
trough C through the small aperture shown. As fast as it is removed from the
trough more falls through, while the slats prevent the chickens from wasting
or soiling the food.
CHAPTER IV.
LARGE SCALE POULTRY MANAGEMENT,
The handsome profits whieh have frequently been published as having been
realized from the management of a few fowls, have led to occasional attempts to
carry the business into a wider field; according to the common method of rea-
soning that if such a profit can be realized from so many fowls, a corresponding
one should be obtained upon a larger number. Such attempts, however, have
generally resulted in failure, even more generally, perhaps, than is commonly
supposed, since the starting up of a new industry, when everything connected
with it is novel, and while only the gilded estimates of its anticipated profits
are to be seen, is likely to excite a very much wider attention than its quiet
abandonment, after the unforseen expenses and losses attending its manage-
ment have brought disappointment and failure.
Moreover, some of the most highly gilded descriptions of large poultry farms
and their management, have proved, on closer inspection, to have been manu-
factured out of the imagination of certain industrious hoaxers. Thus Lewis
Wright, in his Practical Poultry Keeper, devotes twenty pages, illustrated with
numerous engravings, to the description of a wholesale poultry establishment
in France, this description being a “translation from an interesting work pub-
lished under the authority of the French Minister of Agriculture,” and telling
of a certain Baroness de Linas, a widow, who, “partly for amusement, and part-
ly in order to augment a rather scant income, turns her attention to poultry, and
has for some time succeeded in both objects.” This establishment, “situated at
Charny, a village near Paris,” was said to accommodate twelve hundred laying
hens, with their broods; and Mr. Wright’s description of it is said to have in-
‘ duced persons to cross the Atlantie for the purpose of visiting it, only to find
that no such place as Charny was known in the neighborhood of Paris, and
that the great poultry establishment of Madame de Linas existed only in imag-
ination.
A similar hoax was the story of the mammoth poultry establishment of M.
de Sora, also near Paris, in which twenty-two superannuated and damaged horses
were daily slaughtered and cut up into mincemeat, for the benefit of a hundred
thousand hens, that, under this regimen, laid three hundred eggs each per an-
num. This story was widely copied, even journals of such information and re-
spectability as the Mark Lane Express being duped by it; but when the attempt
was made to find M. de Sora’s establishment it vanished into thin air.
Similar stories have had their origin on this side of the ocean, having not
only poultry, but other industries for their object; now it may be a poultry
farm in the east; to-morrow a frog farm in Wisconsin; next week a turtle farm
in Alabama, ete., ete.
~ [35]
36 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
Among the bona, jide attempts to carry on poultry management in this coun-
try on a large scale one of the most widely noticed has been that of Warren
Leland, proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel, New York City. Mr. Leland,
having in his hotel a constant market at the best prices for ali the surplus prod-
ucts of his poultry-yard, and also as constant a source of cheap and suitable
food, maintained for a number of years a flock of hens reaching into the thou-
sands in number. These, however, were not keptin close confinement, but hada
free range of at least an acre for every hundred fowls, over a piece of rocky,
brush-covered land, not fit for cultivation.
In 1877 Mr. W.C. Baker, of Cresskill, N. J., started an establishment in which
it was proposed to hatch by artificial incubation and fatten by the French “cram-
ming” process from a quarter to half a million chickens annually. Seventy-five
thousand dollars were invested in buildings and apparatus, and the Poultry
World published, in May of that year, a glowing account of the establish-
ment and its prospects. By December, 1881, however, this establishment had
changed hands no less than three times, having soon been abandoned by its
originator.
In the number of the Powltry World for January, 1880, an account is given
of another large establishment, managed after a similar plan to the above, be-
ing known as the “Crystal Spring” farm, and located at Medfield, Mass., in
which five thousand fowls were kept, the product being taken by the Parker
House, of Boston, at high prices.
In May, 1881, the same journal described an establishment belonging to A.
C. Hawkins, of Laneaster, Mass., in which several thousand fowls were kept,
being managed after the old-fashioned plan of natural incubation and feeding.
In this establishment more space is given to the fowls than in any of the others
described, the hens having the range of a pasture field of several acres, in ad-
dition to that afforded by the yards.
These, and other similar establishments that have been started within the
past two or three years have not yet had time to demonstrate the practicability of
wholesale poultry management. Disease is the great bane of such a business,
and it is liable to break out at any time, as it has done in others which we have
not named, causing the loss of thousands of dollars. Further than this, it has
been demonstrated that hens will not generally yield so many eggs in confine-
ment 2s when at liberty, while, as before said, their food will cost more.
With regard to the yield of eggs which may be expected from hens kept in
large flocks, Mr. T. B. Miner, of Linden, N. J., a retired editor, and an ex-
perienced poultryman, estimates that one hundred eggs per annum will be as
many asecan be reasonably expected from each hen.* Mr. J. W. Brooks,
proprietor of “Wayside Farm,” near Milton, Mass., realized 112 eggs each from
800 hens kept in 1879.— Mr. A. C. Hawkins, before referred to, gives the
average product of his 2000 hens “about ten dozen eggs each.” f
With regard to the cost of keeping the fowls Mr. Miner estimates, from actual
experiment, that each fowl will require from a bushel and a quarter to a bushel
and a half of grain per annum, with at least one hundred dollars worth of ani-
*Poultry World, Vol. 3, p. 187. +, Loe. Git., Vol. 9, p.269. tLoc. Cit., Vol. 10, p. 146.
LARGE SCALE POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 37
mal food in some shape per thousand fowls, which estimates are sustained
by the statements of other large poultry farmers. From our personal experience
we should say that the yield of eggs was put at the maximum, and the cost of
keeping at the minimum. Upon these data each of our readers may estimate
for himself the probable profits of poultry farming, according to the relative
prices of feed, eggs and fowls in his locality.
H. H. Stoddard, editor of the Poultry World, has written a series of articles
on this subject for the American Agriculturist, which have been republished
by that journal under the title of An Egg Farm, the object of which is to sug-
gest a modification of the ordinary methods of farm or village management for
large scale poultry keeping. Mr. Stoddard reasons that the same methods
which enable the inhabitants of a village to keep flocks of fowls amounting in
the aggregate to many hundreds, might be successfully applied by a single
individual, and he gives plans and estimates for the management of such a
farm, in which the fowls shall be divided into flocks of not more than fifty,
each flock being furnished with a separate building, and these being located
ten or more rods apart..
The buildings are constructed in the cheapest possible manner; fences are
dispensed with; and the food and water are carried from house to house on a
low wagon, so that the capital invested and the cost of attendance are reduced
to the lowest possible point. In order to successfully dispense with fences, the
disposition shown by the fowls, on any farm where many are kept, to divide
themselves into smaller flocks or families, each having its particular range, is
cultivated by raising them at their separate homes, and by feeding them in sucha
manner that they shall not learn to expect food when they see their master, and
thus to follow him from place to place.
Upon this system Mr. Stoddard estimates that five men can take care of 6000
fowls. Mr. Hawkins, above referred to, found himself able to care tor 175 to
200 hatching hens and their broods, and 1200 laying hens, without any help.
This was accomplished by having his buildings arranged withthe utmost con-
venience. In ordinary management 600 to 1000 fowls would be found sufticient
care for one person.
With regard to the capital required for this business, the lowest estimate that
can be made for housing the fowls will be fifty cents each, which would repre-
sent a space for each fifty fowls of twelve by sixteen feet in size by four feet high
at the back and seven at the front, both sides and roof being made of common
barn-boards, and the whole costing, with a window in front, nails, door-hinges,
ete., not less than $25.00. If fenced runs are necessary these would cost from
$10.00 for each fifty fowls, upward. Extra coops, feeding vessels, etc., would ad
$2.50 for each fifty fowls, making the minimum cost for buildings, fences, etc.,
‘vom 75 cents to $1.25 for each fowl, according to prices of material and labor.
CHAPTER V.
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.
The Chinese and Egyptians have, for thousands of years, had the secret of
hatching eggs without the intervention of the hen. Indeed, it would seem al-
most a matter of course that the inhabitants of tropical countries should early
have learned this art, from watching the method by which the eggs of turtles,
alligators, etc., are incubated, being simply buried in the warm sand of the river’s
bank. As early as 1750 the French scientist, De Reaumur, perfected a process
of artificial incubation, which, though successful, was not practicable for ordi-
nary purposes. During the past twenty years, however, the attention of poul-
terers has been freshly drawn to this question, and now the number of appliances
for artificial incubation bids fair to equal the patent bee-hives.
The essentials of a successful incubator are three: an equable heat of about
105 degrees; sufficient moisture in the atmosphere to prevent an undue evapora-
tion from the egg; and ventilation. These conditions are obtained by the Egyp-
tians and Chinese through the use of large ovens, which are watched day and
night by skilled attendants. De Reaumur, in his investigations upon this sub-
ject, first used ovens, but unsuccessfully; his finai suecess was obtained by the
use of fermenting horse manure, and that material is still employed in at least
one of the processes used to-day. It is not a pleasant material to handle, how-
ever, and does not give that opportunity for frequent inspection of the eggs
which is desirable, hence numerous attempts have been made to revive the more
ancient processes, with such modifications as are demanded by our age of steam
and lightning, and especially to provide an automaton which shall raise the flame
of the lamp when the mercury in the egg-drawer begins to fall, and lower it
if the heat becomes too great. This is the problem which has vexed the soul of
many a Yankee during the past two decades.
It has been found that the mercury may rise to 110 degrees without injury to
the eggs, provided it does not remain at that point more than a very few minutes,
or it may sink as low as 50 degrees, for a correspondingly short time; but should
it remain below 100, or above 106 for many hours, all the labor expended upon
the lot of eggs which the incubator may then contain will have been thrown
away, while, as will be seen, it requires a very delicate instrument to quickly
appreciate the difference between these degrees of heat. Electricity, that most
subtile of all the powers of nature whose aid man has learned to invoke, has
been naturally the first thought of many for this work, and numerous machines
have been constructed with electrical appliances attached, so arranged in con-
nection with instruments for the measuring of heat that a very slight change in
the temperature of the drawer containing the eggs will cause machinery to be
[38]
eS = Se
“SNIHOOD ALIA
j39]
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. I
set in motion which will alier the height of the flame to correspond with the
needs of the eggs. ‘
The practical difficulty about these machines is the extreme delicacy of their
construction, rendering them liable to get out of order in inexperienced hands,
and thus to cause a great loss of eggs. Of course the manufacturers of each ma-
chine claim that their’s is absolutely perfect, and that these objections pertain
to alithe others; but the testimony of disinterested parties who have given a large
number of the best machines a thorough trial, is that not one of them is always
reliable, and that ali are sure to give trouble to beginners in their management,
altheugh one who has had experience in handling them may hatch a larger pro-
portion of eggs than is usually done by the average hen
In Figs. 24 to 27 we illustrate the essential principles of an artificial incubator,
except the apparatus for regulating the heat. Such an incubator may.be used
successfully if placed in a room which can be maintained at a nearly uniform
temperature by means of an airtight stove. This description is taken from the
““Youth’s Companion,” and the incubator is not patented.
Fig. 24.—Imcubator Closed.
“ Have a pine case made somewhat like a common wash-stand (See Fig 24)
without the inside divisions.
About a foot from the floor of this case, place brackets like those in Fig. 25,
and on a level with these screw a strong cleat across the back of the case inside,
These are to support the tank. The tank should be made of galvanized iron,
three inches deep and otherwise proportioned to fit exactly within the case and
rest upon the brackets and cleat. The tank should have a top or cover soldered
on when it is made. At the top of this tank in the centre should be a hole an
inch in diameter with a rim two inches high, and at the bottom, towards one end,
a faucet for drawing off the water When the tank is set in the case, fill up all
the chinks and cracks between the edges of the tank and the case with plaster of
Paris to keep all fumes of the lamp from the eggs. Fill the tank at least two
inches deep with boiling water. To find when the right depth is acquired, gauge
the water with a smali stick Over the top of the tank spread fine gravel a quar-
ter of an inch thick; over this lay a coarse cotton cloth Place the eggs on the
eloth, and set a kerosene safety-lamp under the centre of the tank The doorot
42 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
the lamp-closet must have four holes for ventilation, otherwise the lamp will not
burn. The lamp-closet is the space within the incubator under the tank. Turn
the eggs carefully every morning and evening, and after turning sprinkle them
with quite warm water. Two thermometers should be kept in the incubator,
one half-way between the centre and each end; the average heat should be one
hundred and five degrees. If the eggs do not warm up well, lay a piece of coarse
carpet over them. If they are too warm, take out the lamp and open the cover
Fic. 25.—Jnside of Incubator. Front Section—T, Tank; LC, Lamp Closet.
for a few minutes, but do not let the eggs get chilled. If they should happen to
get down to ninety-eight or up to one hundred and eight degrees, you need not
think the eggs are spoiled. They will stand such a variation once in a while;
but, of course, a uniform temperature of one hundred and five degrees will
secure more chickens, and they will be stronger and more lively. In just such
an incubator as this one I have described, I hatched over two hundred chickens
two years ago.
For those who are ambitious to try top-heat, the same sort of a tank is re-
quired, but a boiler must be attached at the side with an upper and lower pipe
—S
. = &
FiG. 26.— Top-heat Incubator, on Table.
for circulation. Any plumber can attach the boiler, and the faucet must be ati
the bottom of the boiler on one side. The drawers containing the eggs should
slide beneath this tank. A stand for the lamp should be screwed to one end of
the case in such a position as to bring the lamp under the boiler. (See picture.)
This incubator can be cooled by raising the lid, turning down the lamp and pull-
ing the drawers part way out. In both incubators while the eggs are hatching
sprinkle them two or three times with quite warm water.”
ARTIRICIAL INCUBATION. 45
With such an apparatus as this, the principles of incubation may be ther-
oughly learned, and probably the combination of such an apparatus with the use
of a room heated by a furnace or a good stove, or of a cellar of even tempera-
ture, will give quite as satisfactory results as may be obtained from the high
priced and complicated patent incubators.
Another form of incubator is said to be used in France, and that is, live
turkeys. The following account of this process is given by Mr. Geyelin, form-
erly manager of the National Poultry Establishment, at Bromley, Kent, England,
who was, at the time he discovered it, traveling in France in search of the
mythical establishment of M. de Sora, previously referred to. The account savors
to us very much of fish, but as it is seriously quoted by Tegetmeier, we give it for
what it is worth:
“ Amongst some places I visited may be mentioned the farm of Madame La
Marquise de la Briffe, Chateau de Neuville, Gambais, near Houdan, where we
observed twelve turkeys hatching at the same time; in another place, that of
M. Anche, of Gambais, a hatcher by trade, we observed some sixty turkeys hateh-
ing at the same time; and we were informed that during winter and early spring
he had sometimes upwards of one hundred hatching at the same time, and that
each turkey continued hatching for at least three months. At the farm of M.
Louis Mary, at St. Julien de Fancon, near Lizieux, in Calvados, I saw a turkey
Fic. 27.—Form of Tank.
that was then sitting that had been so upwards of six months, and, considering
it rather cruel, the hatcher, to prove the contrary, took her off the nest and put
her in the meadow, and also removed the eges; the turkey however, to my sur-
prise, returned immediately to her nest, and called in a most plaintive voice for
her eggs. Then some eggs were placed in the corner of a box, which she instantly
drew under her with her beak, and seemed quite delighted. Moreover, I was
informed that it was of great economical advantage to employ turkeys to hatch,
as they eat very little and get very fat in their state of confinement, and there-
fore fit for the market any day.
“The hatching-room is kept dark, and at an even temperature in summer
and winter, In this room a number of boxes, two feet long, one foot wide and
one foot six inches deep, are ranged along the walls. These boxes are covered
in with lattice or wire-work, and serve for turkeys to hatch any kind of eggs.
Similar boxes, but of smaller dimensions, are prepared for broody fowls. The
bed of the boxes is formed of heather, straw, hay or cocoa fibres; and the num-
ber of eggs for turkeys to hatch is two dozen, and one dozen for hens.
“At any time of the year turkeys, whether broody or not, are taught to hatch
in the following manner: Some addled eggs are emptied, then filled with plaster
of Paris, then placed in a nest; after which a turkey is fetched from the yard
and placed on the eggs, and covered over with lattice. For the first forty-eight
A+ THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
hours she will endeavor to get out of her confinement, but soon becomes recon-
ciled to it, when fresh eggs are substituted for those of plaster of Paris. The
hens will continue to hatch, without intermission, from three to six months, and
even longer; the chickens being withdrawn as soon as hatched, and fresh eggs
substituted. After the third day the eggs are examined and the clear eggs with-
drawn, which are then sold inthe market for new laid; but as they may be soiled
or discolored from having been sat upon, they clean them with water and silver-
sand to restore their original whiteness. The turkeys are taken off their nests
once a day to feed and to remove their excrements from the nests; but after a
while they cease self-feeding, when it is necessary to cram them, cna give them
some water once a day.
“Tn some parts of France, where poultry-breeding is carried on as a trade,
they seldom allow a hen to lead the chickens after being hatched, as the hen is
more valuable for laying eggs; but they entrust this oftice either to capons or
turkeys, who are said to be far better protectors to the chickens than hens, They
require, however, a certain amount of schooling preparatory to being entrusted
with their charge, which consists in this: when a turkey has been hatehing for
some months, and shows a disposition to leave off,a glassfulof wine is given her
in the evening, and a number of chickens are substituted for the eggs; on wak-
ing in the morning she takes kindly to them, and leads them about, strutting
amidst a troop of seventy to one hundred chickens with the dignity of a drum-
major. When, however, a troop jeader is required that has not been hatching,
such as a capon or a turkey, then it is usual to pluck some of their feathers from
their breasts, and to give them a glass of wine, and whilst in a state of inebri-
ation to place some chickens under them; on getting sober the next morning
they feel that some sudden change has come over them, and as the denuded part
is kept warm by the chickens they take also kindly tothem. In conclusion I feel
in justice bound to say that these artificial living protectors are most efficient to
shelter chickens in the day time, and in the evening they are placed with their
charge in a shallow box filled with hay, from which they do not move until the
door of the room is opened next morning. I must not omit to mention that the
chickens are not entrusted to the mother or a leader before they are a week old,
and then only in fine weather.”
This use of capons or turkeys as foster-mothers 7f practicable, would obviate
one of the most serious difficulties of artificial incubation, which is the providing
of a substitute for the maternal instinct of the hen-mother in the rearing of the
young chicks, which has been found almost as serious a difficulty in their case as
is that of the unfeathered biped. Indeed some do not attempt to meet this dif-
ficulty, but manage to have a lot of hens sitting on porcelain eggs at the time
the wood-and-iron hen is at work, starting them at such a time that they shall
have been on the nest a week or two before the chicks are hatched, and then
giving them the chicks at the rate of eighteen to twenty to each hen.
Several forms of artificial mothers, however, have been invented—and most of
them, of course, patented—of which the inventors claim that they far surpass
the natural mothers, in that they do not drag their chicks through the dew, nor
trample them to death, nor cover them with vermin; all of which; no doubt, are
positive advantages, but in practice these advantages have been offset by
ABTIRICIAL INCUBATION. 45
the lack of the instinctive care of the mother hen. The artificial mother
may frequently be used to advantage, however, in supplementing that care.
The essential points of the artificial mother are a sheep-skin tanned with the
wool on, or a piece of buffalo robe or similar material, fixed with the wool side
down upon a frame which will hold it just high enough for the chicks to creep
under, and which may be raised to suit their growth; anda system of pipes, or a
water-tank similar to that usedin the incubator, placed over the sheep-skin, and
warmed as in the incubator. The “mother” should also be placed in a room
warmed with a stove, for the more easy regulation of the heat.
While the incubator and artificial mother are certainly not what is claimed for
them by some of the more sanguine of their advoeates—especially those who
have a pecuniary interest in selling them—there can still be no doubt that they
may be made of great service in the poultry-yard, in the hands of persons who
have the time and natural adaptitude necessary to give that close and judicious
attention to the details of their management which is absolutely necessary to
suecess,
ee
CHAPTER VI.
FATTENING, CAPONIZING, AND MARKETING POULTRY.
By the time the chickens are four months old they will be large enough for
the table, and in the condition of fatness which most persons will prefer. If,
- however, it be desired to market a portion of the surplus, they will sell to better
advantage to be made still fatter, which may be done by confining them in pens
such as those shown in Fig. 28, which represents a long coop, two feet high
and two feet broad, and divided into compartments nine inches wide. These
divisions should be tight, so that the fowls may not see each other, and should
project afew inches beyond the frontof the coop. The bottom of the coop should
be made of triangular slats running lengthwise of the coop, with the angle up-
ward, so that the droppings may fall through, anda shallow pan filled with dry
Fig. 28.
earth should be placed under each compartment to catch these droppings. A
ledge four inches wide should project beyond the bottom of the coop, to hold
the vessels of food and water, and a small curtain (not shown in the cut) should
be tacked in front of each compartment, in such manner that the compartment
may be darkened for a couple of hours after the fowl has fed, as the darkness
and quiet will render digestion more perfect. The curtain should be lifted an
hour or two before the next feeding time, however, that the chicken may come
to his meal with an appetite.
A young fowl placed in one of these compartments and properly fed, may be
made to lay ona couple of pounds of fat in two or three weeks. The best food
for fattening is buckwheat meal, or corn meal and barley meal mixed, and if it
be scalded and mixed with milk it will be all the better. Remember that water
constitutes a large proportion of fat, and that it must be given eitherin the food
or separately. Give no more soft food than will be eaten up clean each time,
but a little whole grain may be kept constantly within reach, and a reguiar sup-
ply of it will be necessary to the sag the fowl. The feeding should be done
46
FATTENING POUL PIOY. 47
three or four times a day. As soon as the fowlsare fat theyshould be marketed,
as they will immediately begin to lose flesh if kept beyond the proper time.
In France this fattening process is carried through still another stage, by cram-
ming the fowls. Cramming consists in forcing pellets of dough down the throats
of the fowls, after they have been induced to eat as much as possible in the
natural way. The following account of this unnatural, and, in our estimation,
unprofitable process, is taken from Tegetmeier: .
“The food used for fattening fowls in France is chiefly buckwheat-meal bolted
quite fine. This is kneaded up with sweet milk till it acquires the consistency
of baker’s dough; it is then cut up into rations about the size of two eggs, which
are made up into rolls about the thickness of a woman’s finger, but varying with
the size of the fowls; these are subdivided by a sloping cut into “patons,” or
pellets, about two and a half inches long.
“A board is used for mixing the flour with the milk, which in winter should
be Inke-warm. It is poured into a hole made in the heap of flour, and mixed up
little by little with a wooden spoon so long as it is taken up; the dough is then
kneaded with the hands till it no longer adheres to them.
“Some say that oat-meal, or even barley-meal, isa good substitute for buck-
wheat-meal; but Mdlle. Millet Robinet (from whose work, ‘Oiseanx de Basse
Cour,’ this account is quoted by Tegetmeier) isnot of thatopinion. Indian corn
may do, but itmakes a short, crumbly paste, unless mixed with buckwheat, when
it answers well if cheap enough, but buckwheat is a hardy plant, which may be
grown anywhere at small cost.
“The food is thus administered: The attendant puts on an apron which will
stand being soiied or torn, and having the pellets at hand, with a bowl of clear
water, she takes the first fowl from its cage gently and carefully, not by the wings
nor by the Jegs, but with both hands; she then seats herself with the fowl upon
her knees, putting its rump under her left arm, by which she supports it; the
left hand then opens its mouth (a little practice makes this very easy), and the
right hand takes up a pellet, dips it in the water (this is essential), shakes it on
its way to the open mouth, puts it straight down, and carefully crams it with
the fore-finger well into the gullet; when it is so far settled down that the fowl
cannot eject it, she presses it down with thumb and fore-finger into the crop,
taking care not to fracture the pallet.
“ Other pellets follow the first till the feeding is finished in less time than one
would imagine. It sometime happens in feeding that the trachez is pressed to-
gether with the gullet; this causes the fowl to cough, but it is not of any serious
consequence, and with alittle care is easily avoided. The fowl when fed isagain
held with both hands, and replaced in its cage without fiuttering, and so on with
each fowl.
“The chicken should have two meals in twenty-four hours, twelve hours apart,
provided with the utmost punctuality; if it hasto wait it becomes uneasy, if fed
too soon it has an indigestion, and in either case loses weight. On the first day
of cramming only a few pellets are given at each meal; the allowance being
gradually increased till it reaches twelve or fifteen pellets. The crop may be
filled, but at each meal you must make sure that the last is duly digested, which
is easily ascertained by gentle handling. If there be any food init, digestion has
48 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
not gone on properly ; the fowl must miss a meal, and have rather a smaller al-
lowance next time. If too much food be forced upon the animal at first it will
get out of health, and have to be set at liberty.
“The fatting process ought to be complete in two or three weeks, but for extra
fat poultry twenty-five or twenty-six days are required; with good management
you may go on for thirty days; after this the creature becomes choked with ac-
cumulated fat, wastes away and dies. A fowl usually takes more than a peck
of buckwheat to fatten it. The fat of fowls so managed is of a dull white color;
their flesh is as it were seen through a transparent, delicate skin.”
In another French method of fattening, quoted by Tegetmeier from Le
Poularler, a treatise by M. Jacque, the food is given in a liquid state by means of
a funnel, the lower part of which is cut diagonally, and the edges of the tin
turned back to prevent injuring the mouth of the fowl. The food given is bar-
ley-meal mixed with milk and water to the consistence of thin gruel.
In England still another process has been used, the food actually being forced
down the poor fowl’s unwilling gullet by a machine resembling a sausage-stufler,
having a long, syringe-shaped nozzle, made of India rubber, a man turning the
wheel of the machine, while a boy places the fowls at the spout with such ra-
pidity that three hundred birds could be crammed in an hour.
These operations may be profitable in England and France, and possibly to a
very limited extent in preparing fowls for the tables of the gourmands of some
of our largest cities, but before they can come into general use there must be a
wider margin between the selling price of the fatted fowl and the cost of the
food required to fatten it than there is at present. Asa preparation for the fat-
tening process the French consider caponizing, or castrating, a necessity. For
ourselves we do not believe this any more profitable than the cramming process,
but for the benefit of those who may wish to experiment with. it we give the fol-
lowing directions for performing the operation :
The best birds for capons are the large breeds, Asiatics or Dorkings. 'They
should be two or three months old. Before the operation they should be de-
prived of food for from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, so as not to have their
bowels distended. The bird to be operated on must be fastened down on his
left side to a board or bench through an auger-hole; the wings should be drawn
together over his back and well secured; the legs drawn backward, the upper
one drawn out furthest and secured. The feathers must be plucked from the
right, or upper side, near the hip joint, on a line with and between the joints of
the shoulder. The space uncovered should be about one and a half inches in
diameter on an ordinary sized bird. Draw the skin of the part backward, so that
when the operation is finished the skin slides back to the natural position and
covers the wound in the flesh, and does not, when neatly done, require sewing.
Make an incision with a fine, sharp penknife (a proper instrument is best) be-
tween the last rib and hip, commencing about an inch from the back-bone;
extend it obliquely downward, from an inch to an inch and a half, just cutting
deep enough to separate the flesh; take great care not to wound the intestines,
The wound must be kept open with an instrument with a spring, called a retract-
or, or with something answering the same purpose, stretching it wide enough to
afford room for the work. Then carefully cut the membrane covering the in-
CAPONIZING POULTRY. 49
testines, which, if not sufficiently drawn up, may be pushed toward the breast-
bone lightly by a spoon-shaped instrument, or the handle of a teaspoon. The
organs to be removed are readily recognized—a small, reddish-yellow cylinder
attached to the spine on each side, covered with a fine membrane or skin,
which must first be removed with forceps and a fine hook to draw it away.
With the left hand introduce the bowl of a spoon (an instrument is made for the
purpose) under the lower or left testicle, which is generally a little nearer to the
rump than the right one. Then take the instrument called a cannula, which is
a hollow tube with a horse-hair passed through it, forming at the end a loop
which can be tightened by pulling on the two ends of the hair at the ether end
of the tube. Pass this loop around the testicle with the aid of something to
place it in position—the cannula has a hook for this purpose—so as to bring the
loop to act upon the parts whieh connect the organ to the back. Then by draw-
ing the endsof the hair loop backward and forward, and at the same time pushing
the lower end of the cannula toward the rump of the fowl], the cord or fastening
of the organ is severed. A similar process is then to be repeated with the up-
permost or right testicle, after which any remains of the organs, together with
the blood around the wound or at the bottom, must be removed with the spoon.
The reason for operating on the lower or left organ first is to prevent the blood
from covering the lower one if left last. When the operation is performed-—
which if skillfully done occupies but a few moments—the retractor is taken out
and the skin drawn over the wound, which if it was drawn on one side before
cutting (as mentioned above) will connect at a place not exactly opposite the
wound in the flesh, thereby covering the flesh wound. If skillfully done it re-
quires no sewing. The old French system was to operate on each side of the
the fowl, but the system here described is considered an improvement on the
antiquated Gallic method.
A corresponding operation may be performed upon pullets, making what the
French term “ poulardes.” We again quote trom Tegetmeier:
“he pullet is placed in the lap of the operator, on its right side and with its
back turned to the operator, the left leg being drawn forward so as to expose
the left flank, in which a longitudinal incision is made close to the side bone ;
this will bring to view the lower bowel, and alongside of it will be found the egg
passage or egg-pipe. If this is drawn to the orifice of the wound by a small
hooked wire, and cut across—or, what is perhaps better, a very short piece of it
removed—the developement of the ovary or egg-producing organ is entirely pre-
vented, and the birds fatten rapidly, attaining also to a very large size. It is
most important to perform the operation before the pullets have begun to lay.
We would beg to impress most strongly the desirability of practicing these op-
erations in the first instance on dead birds of the same age, so that the oper-
ator may become acquainted with the situation and appearance of the parts
concerned. By this means a greater amount of success will be attained in the
first instance, and much unnecessary suffering saved to the animals.
“The operation of making capons and poulardes is, as we have shown, attended
with some risk. The advantages gained are slight in comparison with the danger
of losing the bird, and with the positive amount of unnecessary pain inflicted
upon the animal.”
50 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
DRESSING AND PACKING POULTRY FOR MARKET.
A correspondent of Farm and Fireside furnishes the following directions
for preparing poultry for market:
“As much, if not more, depends upon the manner of killing.poultry as on
that of dressing it to have it fit for the market. Too much caution cannot be
used in this branch of the business.
“The French mode of killing we think far the best, as it causes instant death
Fie. 29.
without pain or disfigurement, and is simply done by opening the beak of the
fowl, and with a sharp-pointed and narrow-bladed knife, making an incision at
the back of the roof of the mouth, which will divide the vertebre and cause
immediate death, ater which the fowl should be hung up by the legs till bleed-
ing ceases, and picked while warm. The flesh presentsa better and more natural
appearance than it does after the old-fashioned way of scalding. Fowls should
Fie. 30.—Packing for Market.
always be allowed to remain in their coops without food at least twenty-four
hours previous to being killed, as the flesh will keep longer and present a better
appearance in the market.
“All poultry should be thoroughly cooled before packing. Then provide
boxes, for they are preferable to barrels, and place alayer of rye straw that has been
thoroughly cleaned from dust on the bottom. Commence packing by bending
_ DRESSING AND PACKING POULTRY FOR MARKET. 51
the head under the body (See Fig. 29); then lay the fowl in the left-hand cor-
ner, with the head against the end of the box, and the back up, and continue in
the same manner until the row is filled. Then begin the second row in the same
manner, letting the head of the bird pass up between the two adjoining birds,
whicb will make the whole solidand firm. (See Figure 30.) In packing the last
row reverse the order, placing the heads against the end of the box, and letting
the feet pass under each other, and fill the spaces with straw. Over this layer
place enough straw to prevent the next layer coming in contact with it, then add
other layers, packed in the same manner, until the box is filled. Care should
be taken to fill the box full, in order to prevent any disarrangement. To those
having extra fine poultry to send to market, we would recommend wrapping
each fowl in paper, before packing; this will prevent dust and straw adhering to
it, and will add much to its appearance. The box should have the initials of
the consignor, the number and variety of-contents, as well as the name of the
consignee, marked on it.”
Pe i a I a a ae
CHAPTER VII.
THE DISEASES OF POULTRY.
In adition to the parasites affecting the young chickens, older fowls are subject
to a few diseases, of the principal of which we quote the following descriptions
from Tegetmeier, with the remedies proposed by him, premising, however, that
for most seriously marked cases of disease in common fowls, the axe and chop-
ping-block are the safest and most economical remedy, as the care and attention
necessary to restore a thoroughly diseased fowl to health will generally far out-
weigh its value, while the danger of propagating the disease among healthy
fowls is a consideration which should be constantly kept in mind.
Whenever there is any suspicion that a fowl has been affected with roup or
cholera, which are contagious, and the most troublesome of poultry diseases, the
fowl, unless very valuable, should be killed and burnt, as the disease is liable to
be propagated from its eareass when simply buried, throngh the burrowing of
earth worms, and their carrying of the disease germs to the surface.
DISEASES OF THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM.
APOPLEXY.
Symptoms.—The symptoms of apoplexy are plain and decisive—a fowl appar-
ently in the most robust health, falls down suddenly, and is found either dead or
without sensation and the power of motion. These symptoms are occasioned by
the rupture of a vessel in theskull, and the consequent effusion of blood, which
by its pressure on the brain, produces the evil.
Causes.—Apoplexy is almost invariably caused by a full habit of body; it is
therefore frequent in over-fed birds, and is most common among laying hens—
which are sometimes found dead on the nest—the expulsive efforts required in
laying being the immediate cause of the attack. Unnatural and over-stinruiat-
ing food, as greaves, hemp, and a large proportion of pea or bean meal, greatly
predisposes to the disease.
Treatment.—In this disease much may be done in the way of prevention—little
towards cure in an actual attack; the only hope consists in an instant and copi-
ous bleeding by opening a vein with a sharp-pointed pen-knife or a lancet. The
largest of the veins seen on the underside of the wing should be selected, and
opened in a longitudinal direction, not cut across; and so long as the thumb
is pressed on the vein, at any point between the opening and the body, the blood
will be found to flow freely. If the bird recovers it should be kept quiet, and
fed on light food for some time after the operation.
[52]
LIGHT BRAHMAS.
[53]
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VERTIGO—PARALYSIS—CROP-BOUND. 55
VERTIGO.
Symptoms.—Fowls affected with this disease may be observed to run around ina
circle, or to flutter about with but partial control over their muscular actions.
Causes.—The affection is one evidently caused by an undue determination of
blood to the head, and is. deperdent on a full-blooded state of the system,
usually the result of over-feeding.
Treatment.—Holding the head under a stream of cold water for a short time
immediately arrests the disease, and a strong dose of any aperient, suchas three
grains of calomel and ten grains of jalap, or jalap alone, removes the tendency
to the complaint. The bird should be kept on a low diet for some time after the
attack,
PARALYSIS.
Symptoms.—An inability to move some of the limbs. In fowls, the legs usually
are affected, and are totally destitute of the power of motion. Care must be
taken not to confound this disease with leg-weakness, which will be deseribed
under the head of Diseases of the Limbs, and which requires a totally different
mode of treatment.
Causes.—Paralysis usually depends on some affection of the spinal cord, and
is another result of over-stimulating diet.
Treatment.—Nothing can be done by way of cure; the cases may be regarded
as hopeless, or nearly so.
DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS,
CROP-BOUND.
Symptoms.—The crop, or membranous dilation of the gullet, whose office it is
to receive the food as it is swallowed, and transmit it in small portions at a time
to the gizzard, is sometimes so overcharged that it is unable to expel its contents
into that organ. From the emptiness of the gizzard the bird feels hungry, and
by continuing to eat adds to the mischief, until at last, by the contraction of the
crop and the swelling of the grain, a hardened mass is formed, weighing in some
cases nearly a pound, and by the enormous protuberance it causes giving evi-
dent indications of its presence. Sometimes the disease is occasioned by asingle
object being swallowed, whose size is too large to permit it to pass into the
stomach. In this ease it serves as a nucleus for other matters, and a mass is
formed around it.
Treatment.—The treatment of this disorder is very simple. With asharp pen-
knife an incision must be made through the skin and then into the upper part of
the crop; the hardened mass loosened by some blunt-pointed instrument, and
removed. If it has remained many days and is very offensive, the crop may
then be washed out by pouring in some warm water. The incision, if small, may
be left, but if large, a stitch or two is advisable. The bird should be fed on soft
food for a day or two, and will rapidly recover. The administration of gin, as
is recommended by some ignorant writers, is certain to cause the death of a crop-
bound fowl.
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56 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK,
DIARRH@A,
Symptoms.—The symptoms of diarrhcea are so evident as to render description
unnecessary.
Causes.—A too scanty supply of grain, which necessitates an excess of green
food, or an unwholesome dietary of any description, are the usual causes of this
vomplaint.
Treatment.—Give five grains of powdered chalk, the same quantity of rhubarb,
and three of Cayenne pepper; if this does not speedily check the relaxation
give a grain of opium and one of powdered ipecacuanha every four or six hours.
Care should be taken not to confound a simple diarrhea with cholera, which
will be described further on.
CATARRH.
Symptoms.—The symptoms of a cold, or catarrh in fowls, are identical with
those so familiar in the human subject—namely, a watery or adhesive discharge
from the nostrils, and a slight swelling of the eyelids; in worse cases the face is
swollen at the sides, and the disease appears to pass into true roup.
Causes.—The cause is exposure to cold or dampness ; such as a long continuance
of cold, wet weather, or sleeping in roosting places open to the north or east.
Treatment.—In simple cases, removal to a dry, warm situation, and a supply of
food rather more nutritious and stimulating than usual, soon effect acure. F “Le
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AMERICAN SEBRIGHTS, OR SEBRIGHT COCHINS. 143
ERMINETTES.
This is a new American breed, originated by Mr. John H. Sutliffe, of Bristol,
Conn., from a cross between a small pair of fowls brought from the West Indies,
which resembled the Leghorns in size and shape, but whose plumage was white,
evenly splashed with solid black feathers. By judicious crossing with the larger
breeds Mr. Sutliffe has been able to produce a fowl having this peculiarly
splashed plumage, combined with large size, feathered, yellow legs, and small
combs.
The Erminettes were first shown at the exhibition of the Central Connecticut
Poultry Association, held at Bristol, in December, 1874.
AMERICAN SEBRIGHTS, OR SEBRIGHT COCHINS.
The first mention we find of this breed occurs in the Poultry World for March,
1876, in an article on “‘ New Varieties,” by D. W. Hooker, who writes:
“Where and how this variety or.ginated I am unable to state, after diligent
inquiry. Ithas marks of both the Brahmaand Hamburg. The head is crowned
with a good, double comb; wattles and ear-lobes both red and of medium size;
hackle black, striped with white; back broad, with black, Brahma-like tail;
breast white, deep and broad, and back and breast feathers deeply laced; wings
primary feathers mostly white, and lower-wing coverts tipped with black, making
a distinct bar; legs short and slightly feathered, coloring throughout clear black
and white, with a tendency to gray on the hackle and saddle; weight, about
eight pounds for the cock and six forthe hen. Their valued points are that
they are good layers the year round ; they are not troublesome to break up from
sitting ; they are fine for the table, dressing a rich yellow; and while being good
foragers, they are not disposed to fly.
“Though possessing the characteristics of a pure breed, so marked as to be
distinguished the moment the eye rests upon them, they have not yet bred true
enough to feather to knock at the door cf the Standard. There is yet much
variety in the lacing; in some the comb shows yet the ‘pea,’ and in others the
Hamburg point. Some also are clean-legged. But with careful breeding they
have a fair prospect of becoming one of the most valued of our domestic fowls.
I trust their breeders will not /nock until their points become 50 established that
the fraternity shall bid them a cordial come in.”
In November, 1877, Mr. M. L. Kidder writes in the same journal of this breed,
adding the name American Sebright:
“Tn size they are much like Plymouth Rocks; in form they are like no other;
bodies are very deep and wide, carrying a large amount of the very best quality
of flesh. In color, as the name seems to indicate, the breast of the cock andthe
entire body of the hen much resemble the beautiful white and black of the Sil-
ver-laced Sebright Bantams, except that the lacing is broader. Hens’ necks are
striped like Brahmas’, and they have a glossy, green-black tail, a little larger
than a Brahma’s. The hen has a very low, flat rose-comb. Her weight at ma-
turity is six to eicht pounds. The color of the cocks, except the breast, is much
like that of the Dark Brahms; but the form is more like the Dorking. Weight,
eight to eleven pounds. Both have, or should have, clean, bright yellow legs,
144 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
free from feathering. They are very quiet, social birds, excellent layers, sitters
and mothers. without that inveterate sitting propensity of all Asiatics. The
chicks feather early. grow plump at six weeks, and are prime for the table after
eight weeks old. They are very hardy and healthy, and for general food quali-
ties and purposes I have never raised their equal.”
In September, 1879, Francis Soule writes in the same journal of this breed,
ealling it the American Sebright. as follows:
“At the last exhibition of the Massachusetts Poultry Association, held in
Boston, I called the attention of two of the committee to my fowls, and asked
what prospect there was of their being admitted into the Standard. They said
they were fine birds, and the breeders of this variety should agree upon the
standard. But as long as some want single combs and some rose-combs; some
feathered legs and some smooth legs, they cannot agree to admit them.”
Mr. Soule further proposes that breeders agree upon rose-combs and
smooth, yellow legs—such fowls, in short, as are shown in our illustration, on
page 145.
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CHAPTER XV.
BANTAMS.
The Bantam fowls are simply dwarfs of the ordinary breeds, their size having
been reduced by taking advantage of occasional “ sports,’ and preserving this ad-
vantage by judicious selection and breeding.
Fowls of the diminutive size of the Bantams have been known since the
time of Pliny, but the most noted breeder of Bantams as a specialty, was Sir
John Sebright, who in 1800 originated the varieties now known as the Goldenand
Silver Sebrights, or Golden and Silver-laced Bantams.
These breeds, which are properly but modifications of one breed, differing only
in the ground-color of their plumage, were originated by crossing a common
Bantam with a Polish fowl, and breeding the cross thus obtained to a hen-feath-
ered Bantam cock which Sir John accidentally found. These crosses were followed
up by many years of the most careful breeding, until now the Sebrights are
among the most beautiful of fowls.
The plumage of the Sebrights is of a golden ground-color in the Golden variety,
or of a silvery-white color in the Silver, each feather being distinctly laced with
black. In the smaller feathers of the neck and thighs this lacing produces a
darker color, while in the larger feathers of the wings and tail the lighter ground-
color predominates.
The Sebright cocks are completely hen-feathered, being devoid of hackle, sad-
dle, and sickle feathers. In carriage they are very erect and proud, so much so
as to remind one of the strutting of a turkey-cock—the head and tail nearly
touching, and the wings nearly reaching the ground. In disposition they are very
pugnacious, always ready for a battle, and not hesitating to attack much larger
adversaries.
The hens are restless and active, and are fair layers, but their eggs are apt to
to be infertile, especially when they run with perfectly hen-feathered cocks. A
very slight divergence toward cock-feathering, in the Sebright cock, either in the
extension of two of the tail feathers—though but for half an inch—or in a ten-
dency toward saddle feathers, has been found to be attended with increased
fertility in the eggs; but such a tendency is discountenanced in the exhibition-
pen.
The comb must be double, or rose shaped, erect, full of points, and ending in
a good peak behind; the wattles are small, florid or livid in color, those of the
hen, especially, being quite compact. White ear-lobes are sought after, but aré
difficult to obtain, and hence a red ear-lobe is not a disqualification. The legs
and feet are slate-colored, and free ey me Twenty ounces is given by
148 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
Mr. Hewitt as the extreme weight for the Sebright cock, and sixteen ounces for
the hen, but the American Standard allows twenty-six and twenty-four ounces
respectively.
Black Bantams.—In this breed the plumage of the cock is of an iridescent
black hue throughout; that of the hens a jet black. The tail is full, with well
arched sickle feathers in the cock, and carried well forward towards the head.
The comb is of the rose variety ; the ear-lobes white; the wattles and face red;
the legs short and black, or leaden-blue in color.
In the English Standard the Black Bantams are disqualified if the cocks weigh
above twenty ounces, or the hens above eighteen ounces each, but in the Ameri-
can Standard six ounces more are allowed to each sex.
White Bantams.—In this breed the plumage is of aclear white throughout, and
the legs and feet are white. White Bantams have been bred so small in England
as not to reach a pound and three quarters per pair; but the English and Amer-
ican Standards allow the same weights as for the black breed.
The chief fault of the White Bantams is a tendency in the cocks to assume a
yellowish tinge in the feathers of the shoulders and saddle. The White Bantams
have rose combs and red ear-lobes,
Booted White Bantams.—Feather-legged Bantams were formerly quite common
in England, but of their several varieties only the white has been retained by
modern breeders. This breed has single combs, and is distinguished by the
heavy feathering of the legs, which are heavily vulture-hocked; the shanks may
be white or yellow, but white is preferred, and they must be feathered to the end
of the outside toes.
The long vulture-hocks prevent these fowls from scratching, hence they may
be kept in gardens where other fowls would do mischief. There should be no
yellowish tinge in their plumage.
Pekin, or Cochin Bantams.—This singular breed of fowls, illustrated on page
151 is said to have first been brought to the notice of English fanciers at the
sacking of the Summer Palace at Pekin. ‘ During the occupation of the Palace
by the British, a pair of these Bantams used to come daily into the ofticer’s tent
to be fed; andas a quantity of spoil was being collected to be sent to England
these two were caught up and forwarded. This pair were the progenitors of all
those since rearedin England. The very close in-and-in breeding necessitated by
the introduction of only a single pair has had its inevitable result in want of
fertility in the eggs, and great mortality of the chickens; consequently the great
drawback to these very singular little birds is the extreme difficulty of breed-
ing them; as the chicks die in the shell, at various stages of development.” *
No further description of these birds is needed than to say that they are simply
miniature Buff Cochins; the color and feathering being almost the same; the
difference being in the size, the standard weights for these being the same as for
other Bantams.
It has been attempted to remedy the defect in constitution to which Mr. Teget-
meier refers by crossing this breed with the White Feather-legged Bantam and
then breeding out the cross with results which promise to be satisfactory.
*Tegetmeier,
BANTAMS. 149
Japanese Bantams.—These, as our illustration shows, are among the oddities
of the poultry-yard. They are of Japanese origin, as their name implies, and,
with a frizzled-feathered Bantam, are the only breeds which that country has as
yet furnished us. When first introduced they were of several colors, but the
Standard has settled upon white for the body color, with black tails.
The standard weights are the same as for other Bantams; the carriage is very
upright; the comb single and very large, and the wattles large and pendant.
(See illustration, page 157.)
Game Bantams.—All the varieties of the Game fowl are reproduced in minia-
ture in the form of‘‘Game Bantams,” for which no other description is neces-
sary than to say that the Standard for the larger varieties is applied throughout
to the Bantams, except in size, the standard weights for the latter being twenty-
two ounces and twenty ounces for the cock and hen respectively.
In addition to the varieties of Bantams above described there are several
others, which have at one time or other been cultivated, but which it would be
unprofitable to enumerate here, as they are chiefly obsolete, or else mongrel
strains not likely to be recognized as Standard fowls.
Bantam chicks in general are a little more sensitive to wet weather while quite
young, than those of larger breeds, but after a few weeks they are equally hardy
and easy to raise. The use of the Bantams is chiefly as pets, although they are
in general fair layers, and probably give a fair return for the food consumed.
CHAPTER XVI.
MISCELLANEOUS BREEDS,
SULTANS.
These are a diminutive white fowl, weighing from three to five pounds,
heavily crested, feather-legged, and vulture-hocked. They were first imported
in 1854 by a Miss Watts of Hampstead, England, from Constantinople, where
they were called Serai-Laook, or Fowls of the Sultan. They seem not to have
been abundant in Turkey, as Miss Watts failed to secure a second consignment,
The pure Sultans of to-day, are therefore descendants of the original trio im-
ported to Hampstead, and are hence not very abundant, while they have
been closely in-bred. Their chief value is, like that of the Bantams, for orna-
ment and for children’s pets.
SILKIES.
The peculiarity of these fowls is that the webs of the feathers are separated,
so as to give the plumage the appearance of hair, rather than of feathers. The
quill feathers of the wings have the filaments so much divided as to be useless
for flight, and the tail, in the best specimens, is but little more developed than
that of the Cochins. The comb is usually depressed and warty, and, with the
wattles, of a deep purple color. The ear-lobes are generally bright blue, the legs
and feet blue, as also the skin and the periosteum, or bone covering, a fact
which makes these fowls quite undesirable for the table. The plumage of the
Silkies is clear white; they possess a crest, and a fifth toe, the shanks and outer
toes being feathered. The carriage of the birds is rather low and Cochin-like.
The loose plumage of the Silky fowls gives them the appearance of greater
weight than they possess; the hens weighing generally but two pounds, and the
cocks two and a half. On account of their small size they are frequently classed
with the Bantams, and they are chiefly valuable to lovers of the curious, or to
those who wish to domesticate the smaller wild fowl, as quails, pheasants etc.
For this purpose they are exceptionally valuable, being very docile, excellent
mothers, and able, on account of their loose plumage, to brood a large number
of chicks.
The Silkies have long been cultivated. We find an account of a “wooly”
fowl, which was undoubtedly the Silky, in the works of Conrad yon Gesner,
who wrote at Zurich during the sixteenth century; and again in those of
Aldrovandus, a century later.
[150]
PEKIN BANTAMS.
Ast
JAPANESE FUR FOWLS—FRIZZLIES—RUMPKINS. 153
JAPANESE FUR FOWLS.
These are a variety of the Silky fowl, but are distinguished from that breed
by having a white skin; red face, comb and wattles, the comb being of the
“rose” shape; and in being heavily crested and bearded. They were first im-
ported into the United States in 1872 by Geo. H. Carey, of New York, accord-
ing to a statement in the Poultry World for May, 1879.
This breed is not yet recognized in the American Siandard.
FRIZZLIES.
This name appropriately describes a breed of fowls which was described by
Aldroyandus, and has been known ever since. It is stated by Temminck that
this breed is widely domesticated in southern Asia, Java, Sumatra, and all the
Phillipine islands, and that its prevailing color is white, although there are
many black and brown specimens. As bred in the United States the Frizzlies
are of all colors, from white to black.
Their distinguishing peculiarity is the curious disposition of the feathers to
curve forward towards the head, giving the bird the appearance of having been
roughly “rubbed the wrong way.”
The English writers on poultry do not give the Frizzlies a good character for
constitution nor productiveness; but several American breeders speak of them
as being very hardy and excellent layers; enduring the cold of winter well, and
attaining an average weight of five or six pounds.
RUMPKINS.
The Rumpkins, or Rumpless Fowls, were also described by Aldroyandus,
which shows them to be an old breed. The name is derived from the absence of
the last vertebra of the back, those which support the fleshy protuberance from
which the tail grows, consequently the fowls are tailless. Their origin has been
ascribed by Temminck to the forests of Ceylon, but this conclusion is pronounced
premature by E, L. Layard, who, writing from Ceylon in 1850 to the “ Gardeners
Chronicle,’ says: “The Rumpless Fowl! is not an inhabitant of this island. It
is a rather rare, tame introduction from Cochin, Iam told. It may appear like
boasting, but I can confidently say I am more acquainted with the Ceylon fauna
than any man living, and that if the bird had existed wild I must have seen it.
Wallikikilli (the name given by Temminck to the supposed wild Rumpkin) “is
the name for the female of Gallus Stanleyi, meaning literally Walli, jungle, and
Kikilli. hen. The name of the Rumpkin is Chocikukullo, literally, Cochin
fowls.” .
Mr. Tegetmeier quotes the above with approval, and further says: ‘There
can be no doubt that the Rumpless fowl does not exist in a wild state in any
region of the Globe, It has evidently taken its rise in an accidental variation,
which has been perpetuated by the care of man; its continued existence is a
very, good example of the perpetuation of a variety by the process of artificial
selection.”
Mr. Hewitt is quoted by Tegetmeier as saying with regard to these fowls:—
“Tt is difficult to breed them to any particular color; as with the most rigid
154 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
care in the selection of the brood stock, the chickens sport into nearly every
variety of marking and ground-color. The only birds of this kind that I ever
knew to breed truly—so far as color was concerned—were purely white ones.
“Extraordinary differences in point of size exist in these fowls; some spec-
imens range as heavily as six and a half to seven pounds each; others do not
exceed two and a half or three pounds. Some have small lark-crests; others—
and these constitute the majority—have none. As usually met with they appear
to possess no distinguishing formation of comb; rosy, cupped, and flat combs
being equally prevalent. There is, therefore, no positive standard that can be
laid down as the peculiarities of this yariety save the one to which their namerefers.
“T now proceed to mention a still more perplexing proof of their versatility
of character; a friend of mine purchased a successful pen at a poultry show,
taking them away to a walk where no other fowls ever trespassed; and -yet the
chickens were, in a considerable number of instances, furnished with fully-de-
veloped tail-feathers, being not rumpless. On inquiry of the previous owner,
he stated: ‘Mine have always done so from the time I first kept them; but the
tailed birds will very probably produce rumpless chickens.’ Three such birds
were then purposely retained; and they produced the next year, more than
twenty youngsters, all of which, but one, were rumpless and destitute of tail
feathers. The white ones I have before alluded to, occasionally produced
chickens that were not rumpless, but only rarely I believe Rumpless fowls to
be hardy, as even in exposed situations, on the sides of Welsh mountains, they
continue in good health and prosper well, even in eases where the fowls at all
times shift for themselves. and but slight attention is shown to the chickens.
I can willingly add my testimony, likewise, to the good quality of a Rumpless
fowl on the dinner-table, the flesh being abundant, white, firm, and of good
flavor; but, as a drawback to their utility, it may be stated that all Rumpless
fowls are sadly prone to lay unfertilized eggs.” 4
With regard to the above defect Mr. Tegetmeier states that it is purely
mechanical, and may be remedied by cutting away or shortening the drooping
saddle-feathers of the hens during the breeding season.
CREEPERS.
These fowls, known in Scotland as Dumpies, or Scotch Bakies, and in France
as Courtespattes, are distinguished by their extremely short legs, the shank
bones of well bred birds frequently not exceeding two inches in length, in birds
weighing from five to seven pounds.
Although a good fowl, being docile, good at laying and sitting, and superior
for the table, this breed is now but little cultivated. It would seem, however,
to be worthy of attention as a means of reducing the tendency in some other
breeds to become leggy.
BLACK RUSSIANS,
This breed, though recognized by the Standard, is extremely rare. It seems
to have been first introduced into the United States by way of New Orleans, and
to have traveled thence up the Mississippi to lowa. It has subsequently been
imported into Connecticut.
GRAY LIVONIANS. 155
,
The fowls are of medium size, greenish black in color, wit! rose or double
combs, and heavy beards, or muffs. They are round and compact in form, their
flesh of good quality, and they are reported to be extraordinary layers.
GRAY LIVONIANS.
Northern Europe, from Denmark through Finland to Livonia, in northern
Russia, possesses a fowl which is almost the exact counterpart of the American
Dominique, but which has been originated in one of those countries.
As this fowl is greatly esteemed in those high latitudes it would seem de-
sirable to import it into the northern United States,
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CHAPTER XVII.
TURKEYS.
Naturalists at present recognize but two species of wild turkeys—the Meleagris
gallopavo, and the M. ocellato. Of these the first embraces two varieties, the
typical JZ. gallopave, which is the wild turkey of the South-western United
States and Mexico, and the JZ sylvestris of Canada and the Northern United
States. These varieties were formerly classed as different species, under the
names of M. Mexicana and M Americana, but as they differ but little, except in
color of plumage, they have latterly been regarded as but one species.
M. ocellato is the rare and beautiful Ocellated Turkey of Central America.
In former geological epochs, at least three other species of Meleagris have ex-
isted withtn the limits of the present United States ; the remains of two species,
M, Altus or superbus, and M. ecler, having been found in the Post Pliocene of
New Jersey, and of another, JZ antiquus, inthe Miocene beds of Colorado.*
Anatomically the turkey is closely related to the Guinea fowl: Hence, the
generic name, Meleagris, the ancient name of that fowl; while the specific
name, gallopavo, is compounded of the names of the barn-door fowl, Gallus, and
of the peacock, Pavo.
Ornithologists now generally believe that the wild turkey of Mexico was the di-
rect parent stock of the domesticated turkey, basing this belief upon the facts that
this variety shows more tendency toward the variation in the color of the plum-
age which characterizes the domestic fowl, as its wing coverts and tail feathers
contain some white. Another argument in favor of this theory is that the species
or variety existing in the vicinity of the comparatively civilized Mexicans would
probably have been brought into domestication long before that whose habitat
was among the roving Indians to the northward. That the turkey had been
domesticated by the Mexicans is shown by the fact that it was introduced into
Europe from Mexico or the West Indies by the Spaniards, early in the sixteenth
century
The following interesting historical notes were written by Prof, E. L. Sturte-
vant for the National Live Stock Journal:
““Mexico was discovered by Grigalva, in 1518. Cortez, in 1519, on the march to
Cempoalla, saw the wild turkey, which is described as a species of peacock
(Diaz). Peter Martyr refers to the turkey, whose “females sometimes lay
twenty or thirty eggs;” and Clavigero and Oviedo also notice this bird. At
Cibola, New Mexico, in 1540, Coronado found “certain guinie cocks, but few,”
and kept by the natives for their feathers; but he found them “excellent good,
——— -——_-..
*Prof. Theodore Gill, in Johnson’s Cyclopedia
156
JAPANESE BANTAMS.
TURKEYS. 159
and greater than those of Mexico.” Antonio de Espego, 1583, speaks of them as
“hens of the country.” Benzoni, 1572, says they are only found “ in the terri-
tories of Guatemala, of Cape Fonduri, and Mexico;” that they have been brought
to Europe, and that this species of peacock is commonly called the Indian
fowl.
“This noble bird, says Prescott, was introduced into Europe from Mexico. The
Spaniards called it gallopavo, from its resemblance to the peacock. Baird says it
is reported to have been introduced into England in 1541, and in 1573 had be-
come the Christmas fare of the farmers. In 1526 it had already been transported
in a domestic state to the Antilles.
“There can, however, be no question of the fact that the turkey was habitually
reared by the Mexicans at the time of the conquest. Bancroft furnishes refer-
ences which carry its domestication beyond the Mexicans of Montezuma’s time,
for in the splendid zoological gardens of that emperor, 500 turkeys were daily
killed for fook for the birds of prey. One of the chief offerings of the Zapotecs
was the blood of the, to them, sacred turkey. The Nahuas kept and bred tur-
keys, quails, geese, ducks, and many other birds. In ancient Yucatan, the
Maya Nahuas had domesticated turkeys, ducks, geese, and other fowl.
“The American turkey, WM. gallopavo (L), is a native of North America, from
Mexico to the forests of Lower Canada, but has not been found wild west of the
Rocky Mountains. We have noticed that Coronado, in New Mexico, found,
tamed bythe Indians, a turkey “greater” than those of Mexico. Waison, in
his annals, says precisely, that “the Swedes on the Delaware tamed the wild
turkey. The Indians also tamed the turkeys and kept them near their huts.”’
Thus, although we are willing to believe with Baird, that the M. Mexicana fur-
nished the first one ea‘en in France, served at a banquet given at the wedding of
Charles IX., in 1570, we deem it equally reasonable to believe that some of our
present birds, at least, trace their origin to the M. Gallopavo.* Perhaps it is
to this latter strain we are to assign those varieties which attain great size and
weight, such as the one sent by Mrs. Lounesbury, of Connecticut, in 1866, to Pres-
ident Johnson, which, not quite two years old, weighed above 47 lbs.; or the stiil
larger one killed by A. Johnson, of Pulaski, Ky., which, according to sworn
statement, weighed 55 lbs. pt i My. f-uirinth mnt
Hy, 0 ns ee ou
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TURKEYS. 163
server. The general tints of the gobbler—for he is a far handsomer bird than
the hen, and generally twice the latter’s size—are purpleand a deep, rich brown,
with various shades of gold and violet colors gleaming upon his close-lying
plumage as the sunlight plays upon its surface. The head and neck, when bare
of feathers, are of a darker blue than in the tame variety, whilst the tuft, re-
sembling horsehair, which hangs from the breast, often measures, in full-grown
males, nearly a foot.
“Tf the weather is mild and warm towards the end of February, the forests,
just before and at daybreak, are filled with the gobblings of the cocks and the
responsive cluckings of the hens; and this continues through March and April.
By the close of the latter month the clucking has almost entirely ceased, as the
hens are upon their nests, which they keep carefully concealed from the gob-
blers. These latter, at this time, worn out with their amorous duties and bat-
tles with their rivals, are nearly mute ; and now, having nothing to fight about,
and being weak and thin, wander about by themselves through the summer, too
worthless for powder and shot. So poor are they that they have given rise to an
Indian proverb, ‘ As poor as a turkey in summer.’
“The hen generally makes her nest some two or three hundred yards from
the edge of the forest, in the prairie, and never very far from water, to which,
being a thirsty bird, she makes about three visits a day—in the morning, at noon
and in the evening. Prairie sloughs, which run out some distance from the
main timber into the prairies, and which have some little timber upon them, are
favorite nesting-places, as she can steal from the forest, under the shelter of the
straggling timber, undetected by the gobblers, gain her nest on the prairie, and
sit in peace; as the gobblers at this time, poverty-stricken and ‘ashamed of them-
selves, seek the thickest parts of the woods to hide in, and rarely venture into
the open. But, poor or fat, whenever the cock finds a nest he breaks it up, and
he neyer neglects to break the skulls of all the young chicks he comes across.
“The chicks, when hatched, are very small, and covered with a more hairy
covering than the down which young chickens have. If the season be a
dry one they thrive very fast, as insect food is abundant; but whenever it is a
wet season the young ones ‘fare but middling,’ as they are particularly tender,
and are easily killed by damp, chilly weather. Upon the dryness of the season,
therefore, the turkey-hunter builds his hopes of the plentifulness of his game.
“By October the young birds have become nearly grown, and able to take care
of themselves; the hens have recovered the flesh which they had lost by sitting,
whilst leading their young in pursuit of the myriads of grasshoppers which
swarm on a southern prairie during thesummer; and the gobblers having picked
up their good condition by feeding upon wild grapes, blackberries, mulberries,
_nuts, grubs, and the thousand-and-one treasures scattered through the forest;
and so, all feeling strong and fat, they gradually join their forces and form ‘ gangs’
as the backwoodsmen call them, often consisting of a hundred individuals or
more in each gang. From this ‘gathering of the clans,’ October is named the
‘Turkey month’ by the Indians.
“ At this season the turkeys wander over a great extent of country in search
of ‘mast,’ remaining in one place only so long as the acorns, pecan-nuts, and
other food remain plentiful; and when these are exhausted they move on in
164 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
search of more, rarely rising unless they have a river to cross, or are flushed by
a hunter’s dog, or by wolves, foxes, wild cats, ete. When the river to be crossed
is a very wide one, such as the Mississippi, they often spend a day or two upon
its banks, as though considering the difficulties of the attempt. During this
time the males strut backwards and forwards, their ‘fans’ expanded, their wings
sweeping the ground, and their throats rolling out gobble after gobble in quick
succession, as though trying to inspire the hens and young birds with courage
for the undertaking. Finally, when the courage of all has been wound up to
the proper pitch, the whole flock flies up into the tops of the highest trees, where
they sit a short time longer, stretching their necks out towards the bank they
desire to gain, as though estimating the distance to be crossed, as well as gather-
ing breath for the prolonged flight. At last, seemingly at a given signal, all take
wing; but in their progress across there is always a descent, and few except the
strongest ever land much beyond the bank, the younger and feebler often fall-
ing into the water—not always to perish, for they can swim a little—but many
frequently gain the bank exhausted and bedraggled, only to fall aprey to wolves
or wild eats, which, warned by the two or three days’ gobbling on the opposite
bank, are on the look-out for ‘wrecks’ Very often the backwoods squatter also
profits by the flight, for having heard the noise, he prepares to secure a few to
lard down ina barrel for future consumption at his wigwam. Judging, from
former flights, where the ‘gang’ will make his side of the stream, he lies con-
cealed, and when the fight does take place he takes advantage of the birds’
necessities, and secures ‘a right smart chance of ’em.’
“From October to February the turkeys remain, in larger or smaller companies,
together; when, as before stated, the preparations for breeding commence.
“The wild turkey, as an object of pursuit, is the shyest and most wary of all
game; even where they are plentiful and rarely hunted, the person who pursues
them must have some knowledge of the bird and its habits to hope for success.
When they are searce, and have been much hunted, they become inconceivably
wild and suspicious, and only the veteran hunter can kill them; young, half, or
three-quarters grown birds are more easily killed.”
The Mexican wild turkey, MZ. Gadlopavo, as described by Mr. Gould, is consid-
erably larger than the variety found farther north, “but it has shorter legs, a
considerably larger and more expanded tail, conspicuously toned with black and
brown, and terminated with white; the tail coverts are very profusely developed,
largely tipped with white, and bounded, posteriorly, with a narrow line of black,
their basal portions being rich metallic bronze. The same arrangement of color-
ing also prevails in the feathers of the lower part of the flanks, and on the under
tail coyerts, where it is particularly fine. The centre of the back is black, with
green, purplish, and red reflections; the back of the neck, upper part of the
back, and shoulders, are in some light bronzy, in others the color of fire; the
greater wing coyerts are uniform bronzy brown, forming a conspicuous band
across the wing; all the primaries are crossed by mottled bars of blackish brown
and white, freckled with brown; all the under surface is fiery copper, intensely
brilliant in certain lights, and becoming darker towards the flanks.”
The Ocellated, or Honduras turkey, is thus described by Mr. Tegetmeier:
“The Ocellated turkey isa native of Guatemala, the province of Peten and Yuca-
"M000 VANIOD
[165]
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io
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THK BRONZE TURKEY. 167
tan. The extraordinary brilliancy of its plumage renders it almost equal in
beauty of coloring to the Impeyan Pheasant, which scarcely surpasses it in the
metallic lustre of the feathers. In size it is nearly equal to the common turkey.
At the base of the upper mandible of the bill is a long, fleshy caruncle, capable
of contraction and dilation as the bird is excited or tranquil. The head and part
of the neck are naked, and of similar livid color, but without those caruncles
or fleshy tubercles on the lower part which are so characteristic of the common
species. On the breast, the tuft of coarse hair, that forms so characteristic a
feature in the common turkey is absent.
“The feathers of the upper part of the body are mostly of a brilliant bronzed
green, terminated by two bands; the first black, and that next the tip of a
golden-bronze color. Lower down the back the colors become more vivid, and
are tinted with emerald green, rich blue, or red, according asthe light falls upon
them. On the tail the bars or bands become broader and even more brilliant,
making each feather appear as if eyed or ocellated; and, from the arrangement
of the tail coverts there appear four rows of these brilliant metallic eyes. The
upper wing coverts are a rich, bright chestnut, which contrasts strongly with the
white ofthe feathers of the lower part of the wing.
“The entire plumage may be described as far more brilliant, varied, and beau-
tiful than that of any other turkey. The general appearance of the bird differs
widely from that of the domestic species. Several hybrids between this and the
ordinary species exist, and these have proved perfectly fertile, breeding freely
in domestication.”
&
DOMESTIC BREEDS OF TURKEYS.
The original varieties of domestic turkeys were but two, the Norfolk, or black,
and the Cambridge, or variegated. These varieties have latterly, however, been
elaborated into a larger number, by the skill of modern breeders in fixing certain
characteristics of color, until we have one or two varieties of white turkeys, of
which the White Holland is avery large, fine bird; the contrast of colors be-
tween the red neck, the black tuft or beard, and the snow-white plumage being
very beautiful. The buff color often seen in the common turkey has also been
fixed in a separate breed. Rhode Island has produced a large breed called the
Narragansett, the prevailing colors being a mixture of black and white, and also
an equally large dove or slate colored breed; and within a few years a new,
larger, and very fine variety called the Bronze turkey has been originated by
crossing with the wild M. sylvestris.
At several times since the domestication of the turkey, birds with crests sim-
ilar to those of the Polish fowl have appeared, but no breeder has yet been able
to fix this peciiliarity so that it will be uniformly reproduced.
THE BRONZE TURKEY.
We quote from the American Agriculturist the following remarks upon this
splendid breed:
‘‘ All things considered, we place the Bronze turkey at the head of all the breeds
of this domesticated bird. The white, buff, black, slate, and other varieties, all
168 THE COMP ERE i OWL ba IB OlOEKE
come from the wild turkey of our woods and prairies, which still exists in con-
siderable numbers in the newer states and territories. Occasional specimens of
the wild bird, generally old gobblers, are captured, which equal the heaviest
weights of the farm-yard, but the average of the wild birds is much lighter than
the average of a well-bred farm flock. The Bronze breed is the smallest de-
parture from the wild bird in respect to color, and a decided improvement upon
it, both in color and size. Nothing can exceed the brilliant plumage of a Bronze
cock-turkey, in his second or third year, and the females are hardly less attrac-
tive. The dirty, snuff color, which marks the wild birds, is entirely bred out of
them. This lustre of the plumagé, assimilating to that of burnished gold in the
sunlight, has made the Bronze variety a great favorite with all admirers of fine
poultry. About everything known to the arts of the breeder has been done for
the Bronze turkey to bring the stock to its highest perfection. They are the Short-
horns of the poultry-yard. They have been bred especially for size for a long
time, and when we select stock from a flock of thoroughbred birds, we have cer-
tain qualities fixed in them, which are reproduced in their offspring. They are
uniformly beautiful in plumage, and heavier than birds raised from the com-
mon stock. The increased cost of breeding stock is paid for in the larger average
weight of the turkeys slaughtered for the markets at Thanksgiving and Christ-
mas. The standard weights for adult birds of the Bronze variety, fixed by the
American Poultry Association, are, for males, twenty-five pounds; for females,
sixteen pounds; but these weights, in well-bred flocks are often reached in the
first year, and adult pairs of forty-five to fifty pounds are not uncommon, and
sixty f sixty-five pounds are sometimes, though rarely, reached. It pays to
breed invariably from the best stock.”’ (See illustration, page 161.) i
MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS.
The following full directions for the management of turkeys were written bya’
correspondent of the Country Gentleman:
“Comparatively few farmers who raise turkeys, make suitable preparations for
the business. These birds are recently reclaimed from the forest by the frequent
infusion of new wild blood, and it is taken for granted that they are capable of
taking care of themselves, and the more freedom they have the better it is for
them. ‘This is one of the half truths that does a great damage in the rearing of
the crop. They have no yard for them, often no roosts, and they are left to seek
their own nests, and to brood in the woods, where they are exposed to foxes and
other predaceous beasts, and birds of prey. Itis not uncommon for the hen
turkey to steal her nest in the woods, and to hatch out her brood without the
knowledge of her owner. While it is true that these birds need a ramble
through the summer, when they can get the most of their living in green pastures,
it is also true that they need restraint during the laying and hatching season,
and for the first three weeks after the chicks leave the nest. None of our domes-
tic birds are more susceptible of training, or take more kindly to the prepara-
tions that the wise poultryman makes for their thrift and comfort. During the
laying and hatching season, they want agood deal of attention, and for a part of
the day, at least, should be kept in a yard or orchard by themselves, where nests
PEAFOWL.
[169]
a
MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS. 171
have been prepared for them, and where they can be regularly fed and in-
spected.
“The success of the year depends very much upon your knowing where every
bird is, where she spends the day and especially where she lays and where she is
brooding. If you have failed to make their nests in the yard or building pre-
pared for them, it is best to leave the bird to finish her litter in the nest she has
selected. A few days after she has begun to brood, remove her to a secure place
in the yard or shed where you want her to sit. Put a coop over the nest, with
moveable slats in front, so that she can be fastened on her nest and let out at
pleasure, and put a few addled or artificial eggs in the nest until the bird gets
wonted to her new quarters. Remove her from her old nest at night and fasten
her upon her new nest, and keep her caged for three or four days. She will not
suffer in that time for want of food or water. Remove the board from the front
of the coop, and watch for her first coming off, about the middle of a pleasant
day. You may have to drive her back and cage her for a few times, but she will
soon accept her new quarters, and sit as quietly as the other hens near her. It
may require some painstaking and watching to effect the change of base, but it
ean always be accomplished.
“Tt sometimes happens, in the process of incubation, that eggs are broken by
the hen as she turns them over to equalize the heat. Her instinct leads her to
remove the broken egg and to keep her nest clean; but she cannot always keep
the raw egg from the shells of the remaining eggs. This matter should be looked
after every day when the hens come from their nests, for the albumen and yelk-
will stop the pores of the live eggs and kill them. While the turkey is off,
wash off the fouled eggs with warm water, wipe them clean, and after putting
in some clean hay, put the eggs carefully back againinto the nest. This is a fre-
quent cause of failure in the hatching of the eggs, and should have careful at-
tention. If the turkeys have had plenty of broken oyster or clam shells during
the laying season, or have been fed with a little lime mixed in the dough, they
will generally make thick-shelled eggs and escape this trouble. It saves a
great deal of time in watching for this and other causes of damage while the
hens are brooding, to have the nests all in one yard, or near to one another,
Generally the sitting hens will come off about the same time of day, and it will
take but a few minutes at this time to examine every nest, and ascertain if any
eggs have been broken and everything is going on satisfactorily.
“The period of incubation lasts thirty days, and on the thirty-first you may
listen for the evidence of new life in the nest. The old bird is expecting the
advent, and answers the first peep from the broken shell with a soft, tremu-
lous sound, expressing her anxious emotions. This touching and plaintive note,
80 expressive of maternal sympathy, is continued as the chicks one after an-
other break out of their shells, and thrust their heads into ber soft feathers
for warmth and protection. If the incubation has gone on prosperously, they
will all break the shell within a few hours of each other. If the mother bird
has been used to your presence, there will be no difficulty in approaching the
nest at this time and examining the chicks. Generally nothing needs to be
done but to remove the sheils, and this the hen will often attend to herself,
The chief, damage at this time is from the stepping of the bird upon the chicks;
172 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
but if they come out strong, they are generally safer in the nest than else-
where. if any are removed from the nest to the house for safe keeping, they
should be restored to the mother again at night. They need no food for the
first day after hatching, and you only need to feed the hen while she remains
upon the nest.
“Tf the weather is favorable, they should be removed from the nest on the day
following the hatching, or when the last chick isa day old. If the turkey is
gentle, you can take the most of the brood from under the hen and put them
in a basket before she will move. If she is uneasy and likely to flutter, and in-
jure the young, catch her first by the legs, and catch the chicks after-
wards. To guard against lice, wash the old turkey on the underside of the
wings and on the body with a strong decoction of tobacco. This will do no
harm if she is free from yermin, and will be sure to kill them, if she has them.
If the young turkeys get lousy, put on ointment made of yellow snuff and
grease, on the under side of the wingsand naked parts of the body. An ounce
of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case. If they are drooping and
act sleepy you may know there is trouble. Yard them immediately. Examine
every bird, and apply the snuff ointment. You cannot expect to raise a large
flock of turkeys without careful attention to little things. It is a good plan to
mix a little sulphur with the dough occasionally, which is distasteful to the
parasites that infest them.
“When first taken off, the chicks should be confined, while the mother has
her liberty. I have never found anything better for this period of their lives
than a pen made of boards a foot wide, twelve or fourteen feet in length, and set
up edgewise in the form of a triangle. A short board laid across the corners
will makea good shelter in case of rain’ The hen may be left at liberty. She
will not go far from her brood, and it will be several days before they will be
strong enough to get over the top of the board fence. Seta shallow pan in the
yard, and see that it is supplied with fresh water every morning, and witha
dough made of coarse ground Indian meal, fine chopped boiled eggs and new
milk, or other suitable food. They do not want a great deal of food, but want
it often after they begin to eat. They may be kept confined in this yard for
two or three days, then taken out for a few days after the dew is off in pleasant
weather, and returned again before night. If any of the chieks are wet, and
need more hovering than the old bird gives them, they may be wrapped in cot-
ton or wool and put in a basket under a stove or near the kitchen fire, or what
is better, put under a sitting dunghill fowl for a few hours..
“The natural instinet of the turkey leads her to wander about in search of food
for her young. This is a necessity for herself and for her brood, and the habit
of roaming should be encouraged as soon as the chicks are able to bear it. For
the first month they should not be out of sight of the attendant for more than an
hour at a time, except at night, and then he should know where she broods her
flock and where to find her in the morning If the old birds are inclined to
wander too far, or into the mowing and grain fields, tie a shingle across the
wings of the old ones, with the string close to the body, so that they cannot fly
Then if your fences are in good order they can be kept in place about as readily
as sheep or pigs. This will not interfere with their covering their young at
‘SMOnd NHQOd
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MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS. 175
night, or during showers. After two months they will get the larger part of
their food for themselves, and should be encouraged to visit the more distant
pastures and woodlands of the farm. After alight feed in the morning drive
them afield, where grasshoppers and other insects are plenty.
“Tt is quite essential to the best success in raising turkeys, that some one per-
son in the family should have charge of the birds from the time that they begin
to lay until they are ready for slaughter in the fall or winter. A little boy or
girl, an aged person past hard work, or a trusty servant, having this for the chief
part of his duty, should be the watchman. Where a dozen hen turkeys are
kept, it will pay for this minute supervision. To be sure, a good many turkeys
are raised under very careless management, but a great many more that are
hatched, and generally the larger part, are lost for want of timely attention.
Heavy dews, tall grass, stormy days, dogs, foxes, hawks, crows, and other creat-
ures, are enemies that need to be guarded against. The attendant should know
where every clutch is for three weeks after hatching, during every hour of the
day, and where the roost is. As they grow older, more liberty may be allowed,
but they should be taught to come home to the one roost prepared for them
early every evening. Turkeys have lively memories of their feeding places, and
if they are fed regularly about four o’clock in the afternoon, which is the last meal
the old birds or half-grown young should have, they will be seen or heard wend-
ing their way home from all parts of the farm, in good season for the evening
meal, giving time for counting, and for looking up the stragglers, if any are
missing. If the owner of the flock holds the attendant to strict accountability
for watching and counting every night, and occasionally counts himself, to
see that the reckoning isright, he will save agood many turkeys in the eourse of
a season.
“ By setting the turkeys in groups of two, three or four ata time, and near
each other, they will all come off at the same time, and learn to keep company
together, and to feed in the flocks through the summer. It is much better to
have several groups or herds feeding separately, than to have all the turkeys
on the farm feeding in one flock, or scattering promiscuously in all directions.
They will gather more food, thrive better and require much less time in looking
after them.
““ Among the worst enemies of the young turkeys after they begin to ramble,
are the tall grass and grain crops. While the hen gets on well enough, the
young get tired, sit down, and the mother bird is soon out of hearing. The
chick struggles on for a time, but soon perishes for want of food and hovering.
As arule, the flocks of careless managers suffer more from this cause than all
others combined. They drop off one by one, especially on cold, foggy days, and
the loss is so gradual that it is hardly noticed without daily counting. The flocks
must be kept out of the mowing fields, the oats, rye and barley. Unless this be
done, success with this crop will be very small. Turkeys do not succeed so well
upon the prairies, and upon rich bottom lands, mainly from this causc. They
succeed well in New Enggand, and in the dairy regions where there are extensive
pastures, with hilly or well drained soils. They have more turkeys to the
square acre in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut, because this region
abounds in dry, gravelly loams, pastures with short feed, and oak and chestnut
i
176 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
forests, which furnisha large amount of food. The owners of rather poor farms
with a large share of huckleberry pasture, can be thankful that they have a first-
rate chance to enlarge the poultry crop, and make money.
“ Food jor Young Turkeys.—There is a good deal of nonsense published in
the books about the feeding of young turkeys, and the flocks later in life. The
simple fact is that this bird is a voracious feeder, to which hardly anything in
the list of animal and vegetable diet comes amiss. The principal need of cau-
tion in the few days after hatching is in the direction of overfeeding. They
want very little,and want it often, and nothing should be left upon the feed-
ing-board or run to grow sour, or to become mixed with the excrement before
the next feeding. Some tell us to plunge the chicks into cold water; to make
them hardy. A worse thing could hardly be done. Others say, make them
‘swallow a whole peppercorn,’ which is about as indigestible as a bullet.
Others advise to give them a little ‘ale, beer or wine,’ taking counsel, of their
own perverted appetites. The turkey craves a mixed diet of grain and animal
food from the start, and this can be supplied in a great variety of forms. Most
farmers, especially on dairy farms, have the best food for them close at hand.
The best staple food is Indian corn, ground coarse, mixed with new milk. Add
to this a hard-boiled egg, chopped up fine, and you havea complete food for
young turkeys. A pint of meal to one egg, with milk enough to just moisten
it, is agood mixture for the first few days. Then chopped onion tops and grass,
or cabbage, may be added. The old ones will eat of this dough, but cannot
get it all. The chick will be able to get crumbs enough to meet its wants.
Boiled liver is a good substitute foreggs. As they grow older, chopped raw
meat, or fish, may be given. Milk is always in order, and among the best foods
for the growing birds all through the season.
“One of the most successful turkey-raisers that I know of, robs the pigs to
give sour and skimmed milk to his turkeys through the summer. He has a
long trough, into which the milk is poured every morning, and the turkeys
have all they can drink. There is generally enough left in the trough to entice
them back from their rambles at an early hour to the roost. He frequently
raises two hundred turkeys in a season, and never has a failure of the crop.
Indian corn is the best food for the half-grown and adult birds, and they never
seem to get tired of it. All kinds of grain are keenly relished, and it is well to
give an occasional feed of oats, buckwheat, wheat or barley, for change of diet.
As the fattening season approaches, along in October, many farmers feed with
a mixture of boiled potatoes and Indian meal, or oats and corn ground to-
gether. This is given warm every morning, and where pigs are fed it is a very
convenient preparation. But there is probably nothing more economical than
corn, as the staple food through the year. Young turkeys should not be fed
after five o’clock in the afternoon. Instinct does not teach them to feed at night.
If they have a good range in summer, they will return from their rambles with
their crops full of insects, and all they want is a safe roost, and time to digest
what they have eaten. Any kind of cheap animal food, given occasionally,
will help their growth in seasons or places where insects are not abundant. One
of the cheapest of these is boiled beef scraps, or mutton scraps, from the butch-
er’s. This comes in cakes, and costs about a cent a pound. Fruit and vegeta-
‘sMOond AAOODSOW
(177)
MARKING THE TURKEYS. 179
bles, ceoked or raw, are wholesome diet and easily procured, and make a good
change of food. A valuable outfit in raising turkeys is a b@d of cracked oys-
ter shells, or clam shells, where the birds can help themselves, which will be
often. If you put a barrel or two in the road, the hoofs of horses and the wheels
of vehicles will do the crushing without cost.
“« Shelter for the Young Turkeys.—If you mean business in raising this crop, see
that the hen and her brood are safely housed every night for a month at least
after hatching. A vacant stable, or shed, or barn-floor, or hovel, furnishes suit-
able shelter, and with little trouble after the habit is established. The prime
object of this shelter is to guard the young against water and other enemies.
Showers often come up in the night and drench the mother bird, and if she at-
tempts to move, some of the young will be drowned. Then, in the open field,
they are exposed to skunks, foxes and weasels, and sometimes to thieves in hu-
man shape, who can bag your birds at midnight and remove them to unknown
parts. Then the young chicks that roost on the ground for the first month, are
more likely to have straight breast bones than those that take to the roost and
balance their bodies on a fence rail, or the small limb of a tree. The birds
get accustomed to go into the barn and other buildings, and it is much less
trouble to yard them in the fall or winter, when you want to sell them for stock
or for slaughter.
“Marking the Turkeys.—Turkeys are taxable property in Connecticut, and the
owner is liable for damages done by them iu this State, and this ought to be the
case in all the States. A man should be able to identify his turkeys as readily
as his sheep, for they are more likely to stray and to do damage to growing
crops. As a matter of convenience, it is well for near neighbors to breed
turkeys of different colors, so that each owner can distinguish his own at sight,
and keep them within bounds. It will save a good many steps in the course of
the year. Colors have been established by our popular breeders, so that there
is rarely a sport of strange feather in a flock of hundreds. The Bronze type is
only a short remove from the wild turkey, and the plumage is as uniform from
one generation to another as that of the original stock. So we have black,
white, buff, slate and other colors, which are propagated with great uniformity.
It is not difficult at all for neighbors to agree upon breeding different colors, so
that every man will know his own birds as far as he can distinguish colors. A
convenient time to do the marking is in the fall when you select birds for
breeding, which should be the heaviest and most perfect birds of the flock.
Some sew upon the right leg a strip of leather about an inch wide, leaving it
loose so that it will slip up and down readily, and leave room for growth. Some
use a strip of cloth of a given color, as their turkey mark. Some cut off one
of the toe nails when they are chicks, or when the birds are selected for breed-
ing. Enter your mark in your poultry-book, so that it may be available for
reference in case of dispute or litigation. It may save a good deal of trouble
and hard feeling among neighbors. You should be able to swear to your own
property, and to keep your birds upon your own land. An ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure in neighborhood quarrels.
“Many turkeys die off very suddenly by carelessly leaving salt in their way.
Sometimes the old brine is turned out from meat or fish barrels. Sometimes it
_ MIME TI conkeiae — Me entice ee
180 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
is left upon rocks, or in troughs, where cattle and sheep are salted in the
pastures. I notic@that along the sea-board, where it is not the custom to salt
eattle, turkeys succeed much better than they do farther back. This may be
one reason of the large reputation of Rhode-Island turkeys. The whole State
is exposed to the sea air, and the pastures where the birds ramble are free from
salt licks. Put your refuse salt where the turkeys cannot find it.
“How to Fatten Turkeys.—Nothing pays better to be sent to market in prime
condition than the turkey erop. Many farmers do not understand this. Their
turkeys grow ona limited range, get little or no food at home through the sum.
mer, and if fed at all with regularity, it is only for two or three weeks before
killing. I see these lean, bony carcasses in the local markets every winter, and
feel sorry for the owner’s loss. They have received asmall price for their birds,
and a still poorer price for the food fed out. The average life of a turkey is
only seven months, and the true economy of feeding is to give the chicks all
they can digest from the shell to the slaughter. If they get all they can eat on
the range that is well. Usually this should be supplemented by regular rations
when they come from the roost in the morning, and two or three hours before
they go to roost at night. The food may be siack in the morning, so that they
will go to the range with good appetites, and fuller at night. They should be
put upon a regular course of fattening food as early as the middle of October,
when you purpose to kill the best birds at Thanksgiving. The younger and
lighter birds should be reserved for the Christmas and New-Year’s markets.
They continue growing quite rapidly until mid-winter, and you will be well
paid for the longer feeding. There is nothing better for fattening than old corn.
fed partly in the kernel and partly in cooked meal mashed up with boiled
potatoes. Feed three times a day, giving the warm meal in the morning, and
feeding in troughs with plenty of room, so that all the flock may have a fair
chance. Northern corn has more oil in it than southern, and is worth more for
turkey food. Use milk in fattening if you keep a dairy farm. Feed only so
much as they will eat up clean. Cultivate the acquaintance of your turkeys as
you feed them. No more charming sight greets your vision in the whole circle
of the year than a large flock of bronze turkeys coming at call from their roosts
on a frosty November morning. New corn is apt to make the bowels loose, and
this should be guarded against. There is usually green food enough in the
fields to meet their wants in the fall, and cabbage and turnips need not be added
until winter sets in. If the bowels get loose give them scalded milk, which will
generally correct the evil. Well-fattened and well-dressed turkeys will bring
two or three cents a pound more than the Jean birds. It will not only be better
for the purse, but for your manhood, to send nothing but finished products to
the market.”
VONAVO
Toad
“Oy
[181]
CHAPTER XVIII.
GUINEA-FOWLS AND PEAFOWLS.
THE GUINEA-FOWL.
The Guinea-fowls are natives of Africa and Madagascar, where they are
found under nine or ten species, constituting the genus Numida, which, with
the allied genera Agelastes and Phasidus, each represented by one species, make
up the family Numidie.
The genus Numida is sub-divided into three groups, of which one has a bone
casque upon the head; a second has a crest or plume of feathers in the place of
the casque, and the third, comprising but one species, is destitute of either
casque or crest, and is called the Vulturine Guinea-fowl, from the vulture-like
appearance of its head.
The domesticated Guinea-fowl owes its origin to the first group, and to either
the species Numida meleagris or N. ptiloryncha, or both. N. meleagris inhabits
the west coast of Africa, from the Gambia to the Gaboon, whence it has been
imported into the Cape Verde islands, and also into some of the West Indies,
where it is now found wild, and is sometimes extremely troublesome to farmers
from its propensity to scratch up and eat the seed corn, peas etc., and the yams
and cocoas.
Abyssinia, Kordossan and Sennar, are inhabited by NV. ptiloryncha, which is
distinguished from N. Meleagris by having a blue face and wattles, and a tuft of
stiff, white bristles at the base of the upper mandible. Darwin was inclined
to regard this species as the true origin of the domesticated fowl, * but in this
he is disputed by other naturalists.
It seems that the Guinea-fowl was in domestication during the time of
Columella, since he described two varieties of fowls corresponding to NV. melea-
gris and N. ptiloryncha, but we have no record of it after his time until since
the introduction of the turkey, or about the middle of the sixteenth century,
when it was described by Gesner.
The Vulturine Guinea-fowl has never been domesticated; but we learn that
efforts are now being made to introduce it into England with a view to adding it
to the attractions of the poultry-yard.
The ordinary Guinea-fow] retains much of its wild nature in domestication,
in common with its cousins, the turkey and the peafowl. It will seldom roost
in the fowl-house, preferring the lower branches of trees; the hen is very skill-
ful in hiding her nest; and the young birds after they are a few weeks old,
thrive best to be allowed ample range.
In the natural state it seems probable that the Guinea-fowl was monogamous;
* Animals and Plants ae pomcesceonet p. 294.
I —“——————C—~s
184 THE COMPLETE.POULTRY BOOK.
at any rate it is best to have a larger proportion of males than is necessary with
chickens, although instances are on record where the eggs laid by eight or nine
hens running with but one cock proved generally fertile. The hens are great
layers of rather small, pointed, brown eggs; a flock of nine hens being reported
by a correspondent of the American Cultivator as having averaged one hundred
and twenty-two eggs each for one season. They frequently do not sit until late
in the season, and a whole flock will lay in the same nest if opportunity offers.
We have taken forty eggs from a single nest, which a pair of Guinea-hens had
hidden in a field of oats.
The period of incubation is twenty-six to twenty-eight days, the eggs are
most advantageously hatched under a small Game or Bantam hen, and the
young chicks should have, for the first few weeks, the same treatment recom-
mended for young turkeys, except that it is imperative that they be frequently
fed—they require food oftener than any other young fowls.
The Guinea-fowl is not a popular bird, on account of its harsh and incessant
noise, which begins early in the morning, and is continued until night without
intermission. To those who-ean endure its racket, however, it offers some
points of value, being a persistent insect-catcher, a good layer, giving flesh of a
gamey flavor much relished by some, and being so easily disturbed at night
that when it can be induced to roost near the fowl-house it serves as an excel-
lent hen-thief alarm.
The tendency of the domesticated Guinea-fowl to produce albinos has re-
sulted in the production of a white breed, with several intermediate shades.
The Guinea-cocks resemble the hens so closely that it is difficult for an in-
experienced person to distinguish them; the cocks are a little larger, have
larger wattles, and utter a shriller ery—that of the hen resembling the words
“come back, come back!”—the cocks also frequently assume a pugnacious atti-
tude, which the hen never does.
The loose plumage of this bird makes it appear larger than it really is, its
usual weight being four to five pounds. The general appearance of the Guinea-
cock is well shown by the accompanying illustration. (See illustration, page 165.)
The Guinea-fowl has been known to produce sports having the peculiar tassel
on the breast of the turkey, thus lending support to the doctrine of the evolution
of the present forms of animals and plants from, at most a few, normal types.
THE PEAFOWL.
This most gorgeous of all birds is a native of Asia, being now found wild
throughout Southern Asia and the Malay archipelago. Naturally, on account of
its great beauty, it would be among the first birds brought into domestication,
and we find it mentioned in the history of the times of Solomon (I. Kings x. 22),
and also by the writers cf Greece and Rome. Two species of Peafowl arenow
recognized: the common Peafowl, Pavo cristatus, and the Javan Peafowl, P.
muticus.
The following description of the common Peafowl, given by Wright, is prob-
ably as good as can be given, but no word-description, nor even an uncolored
engraving, such as the excellent one on page 169, can convey any adequate idea
of its gorgeousness:
THE PEAFOWL. 185
“The head, neck and breast of the male are a rich, dark purple, with beauti-
ful blue reflections, the head having an aigrette, or crest, composed of twenty-
four feathers, which are only webbed at the tip, where they show blue and green
reflections. The back is green, with-a copper colored lacing to the feathers; the
wings whitish, striped or barred with black, gradually shading into deep blue.
The primaries and true tail feathers are a dark, rich chestnut; but the tail coy-
erts, or train, are glossy-green, ocellated at the tips. The thighs are generally
grayish, and the belly and rump black. The eyes are dark hazel, pearled round
the edges, and legs brown, spurred as in the common fowl. The neckis very long,
slender and snaky, and the head small in proportion to the body. The Peahen
is much more subdued in color, being of a prevailing chestnut brown, variously
shaded on different parts of the body, and mottled or shaded in places, especially
about the wings and tail, with a dull or grayish white. She has acrest like the
male, but duller in color, and not so tall.” :
The wild nature of the Peafowl has never been wholly eradicated, hence it
never thrives in close confinement, but must have considerable range, as over a
large lawn, park, or country place. It can scarcely be induced to roost ina
house, preferring trees, and tall ones at that. The hen lays but few eggs, and
these only in the most secluded places; she incubates them four weeks, and must
not be disturbed during that time; her broods are usually small, and thrive best
when left chiefly to their own management; she goes with her brood about six
months, and this seems necessary, as they do not thrive when reared by common
hens, which desert them at two or three months.
The young Peacock differs but little from the hen until about eighteen months
old, when he begins to assume his splendid train, which he does not fully gain
until his third year. This train is shedannually, and forms a considerable item in
the profitableness of the birds, as it is worth several dollars for feather-brush
making. A lady who is thoroughly experienced in the management of Peafowls
says:
“They require no care when they are young, as the hens hide their nests, and
do not bring the little ones near the house until they are aboutas large as quails.
The greatest objection to them is that they are troublesome about teasing young
chickens, but a good dog will make this all right, as they are very much afraid
of dogs.”
The Peafowl, like the Guinea fowland the turkey gobbler, isa noisy bird; and
its shrill “ee-aw; ee-aw,’” may be heard fora mile or more when the wind is
favorable.
The Burman or Javan Peafowl, Pavo muticus, is a native of the Burmese and
Malay countries, as far northward as Aracan and Sumatra, and is abundant ali
over Java. It is described by a writer in the London Field as being a finer and
larger species than the common Peafowl, the neck being more bulky than in the
common bird, and the plumage on it laminated, or scale-like. “In other re-
spects the form resembles that of the common species except in the crest, which
is long and narrow, standing vertically on the upper part of the occiput, and
compesed of narrow feathers, scantily webbed basally, and ending in oblong
blades. Each of the long, flowing, upper tail coverts ends in an ocellum, or eye,
colored similarly to those in the train of the ordinary Peafowl; but the longest
186 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
or last of these coverts have the terminal portion emarginate, or crescent-
shaped, as if the ocelli had been cut out. The lateral or outermost of these
coverts are more thickly webbed, and curved inwards, so as to bend over the ad-
joining ones; they terminate in points, without ocelli.”
In color this bird differs from the common Peafowl chiefly in having a greater
predominance of greenish shades, hence it is called the ‘Green Peafowl.” Its
habits are very similar to those of the common bird, except that it is more of a
forest bird, is wilder, and more difficult to domesticate.
Some naturalists have claimed that another species of Peafowl existed in the
Black Winged Peafowl, which they have named Pavo nigripennis. ‘In thisbird
the metallic green of the back, which forms the centre of the train, when ex-
tended, is more of a golden hue than in the common species, and the whole of
the secondaries, scapulars, and wing-coverts are black, with narrow edges of
green, which become bluish towards the carpal joint; in this particular it re-
sembles the Javan Peafowl, and is very distinct from the common species, in
which all these feathers are cream-colored, crossed with black markings. Again,
the thighs of the Black Winged Peafowl are black, as in the Javan species,
whereas in the common breed they are always of a pale drab.
“The female of the Black Winged species is of a much lighter coloring than
the common Peahen, being almost entirely of a pale cream-color, mottled with
dark coloring above, and is readily recognizable at first sight. In this respect the
Black Winged is notintermediate between the two species, since the female of
the Javan is much more like the male.” *
The question whether this bird is a different species from the common Pea-
fowl is open to serious doubt, as Darwin quotes numerous instances of birds of
this description appearing among English flocks, and this in cases where there
has been no known opportunity for crossing; moreover, no such breed isknown
to exist in the wild state. hence we are led to the conclusion that the Black
Winged Peafowl is but a variation from the normal type, just as are the piedand
white Peafowls which are occasionally found.
—— eS Slee Be Se oes Rs
* Teget meier.
<= PEKIN DUCKS.
[187]
CHAPTER XIX.
DUCKS.
The varieties of the domestic duck are believed by naturalists to have all de-
scended from the common Wild Duck, or Mallard, Anas boschas, of the sub-family
Anatine, and family Anatide, which latter embraces also the Cygnine or Swans,
the Anserine or Geese, the Fugerline or Sea-Ducks, the Hrismaturine or Spring-
tailed Ducks, and the Mergine or Mergansers.
The Anatine include a number of genera besides the Mallards, one of which
is represented by the Wood-Duck (Aix sponsa); another by the Mandarin-Duck,
which has been domesticated in China; and another by the Musk-Duck (Catrina),
of South America, which has also been domesticated, and in that condition will
produce fertile hybrids with the common duck. 1
The Mallard, however, is by far the most important species, being the most
plentiful—probably out-numbering all the others—the most widely distributed,
and, consequently, the best known. It inhabits the whole of the northern hem-
isphere ; going, in the winter, as farsouth as Panama, Egypt and India, and in the
summer retreating to Greenland, Iceland and Siberia. It usually breeds in the
more northern regions, although its nests are occasionally found in the British
Islands. It sometimes makes its nests in close proximity to water, but they are
frequently found ata considerable distance inland, under the shelter of a thicket,
or even in a hole ina tree.
During incubation the duck plucks a portion of the down from her breast,
with which she surrounds her eggs, drawing it over them as a coverlet when she
makes her daily excursions for food and water. When the ducklings are hatched
she manages in some unknown way to get them to water. Some think she does
this by carrying them in her bill, after the manner of a cat moving her kittens,
but this has not yet been satisfactorily established. When in the water the
ducklings have few enemies to encounter, although they are sometimes captured
by pike and other voracious fishes.
The duck continues her care of the young throughout the summer, a task in
which she is not assisted by the drake, as towards the end of May he goes into
an additional moult, during which he loses his gay plumage and his power of
flight, becoming of the same dull color as his mate. This condition lasts for
several weeks, his gay attire only being resumed when his quill-feathers have
grown out sufficiently to give him the ability to fly.
The markings of the Mallard drake are given as follows by Macgillivray, a
writer on British ornithology:
“The common wild duck, or Mallard, if not the most elegantly formed, is cer-
[189]
190 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
tainly one of the most beautifully-colored species of its family. The plumage is
dense and elastic, on the head and neck short and splendent; the feathers of the
forehead stiffish; of the cheeks and throat short, linear, slightly rounded; of
the rest of the neck shortish and very soft; on its lower anterior part large, firm
and glossy ; on the rest of the lower parts full and blended; on the upper parts
firmer. The wings are of moderate length and acute; the primaries are narrow
and tapering, the second quill longest, the first scarcely a quarter of an inch
shorter; the secondaries are a little incurvate, obliquely rounded, the inner
elongated, very broad, acuminate. The tail is short, much rounded, of sixteen
broad, acuminate feathers, and four medial, incumbent, recurvate reduplicate.
“The bill is greenish-yellow, darker towards the end, with the unguis deep brown;
the lower mandible reddish-yellow, brownat the end. The iris is brown, the feet
are reddish-orange, the membranes pale, reddish-brown, the claws deep reddish:
brown. The forehead is blackish-green, the head and upper neck vivid deep green,
changing to deep violet. On the middle of the neck isa ring of white, not
quite complete behind. The lower neck and a small part of the breast area
very deep chestnut, or purplish-brown. The anterior part of the back is yel-
lowish-brown, tinged with gray ; the scapulars gray. very minutely barred with
brown; the hind part of the back brownish-black, the rump deep green, as are
the four recurved feathers of the tail, the rest being brownish-gray, broadly
edged with white. The wing coverts are brownish-gray, as are the primary
quills and coverts The secondary coverts, excepting the inner, are white in the
middle, with a terminal band of velvet black. About ten of the secondary
quills have their outer webs brilliant deep green, changing to purplish-blue, with
a black bar at the end, sueceeded by white. The outer edges of the inner
secondaries are deep purplish-brown, the rest gray, minutely undulated with
darker. The breast, sides, abdomen, and tibial feathers are grayish-white, very
minutely undulated with dark gray; the feathers under the tail are black, glossed
with blue; the axillars and lower wing coverts are white. Length. to end of tail,
24 inches; extent of wings, 35; wing, from flexure, 11; tail, 44%; bill, along
the ridge 2; greatest breadth, 1; tarsus, 1 5-6.
“The female is considerably smaller, and very differently colored The bill is
greenish-gray, darker towards the base; the plumage of the upper parts dusky-
brown, the feathers edged with pale, reddish-brown; the throat whitish; the
lower parts yellowish-gray, faintly streaked and spotted with brown; the spec-
ulum as in the male; the middle tail feathers straight. Length to the end of
tail, 20 inches ; extent of wings, 32.
“The females renew their plumage annually in autumn, as do the males; but
the latter undergo a singular change in summer, which is thus described by Mr.
Waterton:
“¢ About the 24th of May the breast and back of the drake exhibit the first
appearance of a change of color. Ina few days after this the curled feathers
above the tail drop out, and gray feathers begin to appear among the lovely
green plumage which surrounds the eyes. Every succeeding day now brings
marks of rapid change.
“ «By the 23d of June scarcely one green feather is to be seen on the head and
neck of the bird. By the 6th of July every feather of the former brilliant
TOULOUSE
GOOSK
[191]
THE WOOD DUCK OR SUMMER DUCK. 193
plumage has disappeared, and the male has received a garb like that of the
female, though of a somewhat darker tint. In the early part of August this
new plumage begins to drop off gradually, and by the 10th of October the drake
will appear again in all his rich magnificence of dress, than which searcely any-
thing throughout the whole wide field of nature can be seen more lovely or bet-
ter arranged to charm the eye of man.
“““T enclosed two male birds in a coop from the middle of May to the middle
of October, and saw them every day during the whole of their captivity. Per-
haps the moulting in other individuals may vary a little with regard to time.
Thus we may say that once every year, for a very short period, the drake goes, as it
were, into an eclipse, so that, from the early part of the month of July to about
the first week in August, neither in the poultry-yards of civilized man, nor
through the vast expanse of nature’s wildest range, can there be found a drake
in that plumage which, at all other seasons of the year, is so remarkably splendid
and diversified.’ ” :
We have no trustworthy history of the earliest domestication of the duck, but
it doubtless occurred in ancient times. There are now numerous domesticated
varieties, varying in plumage from white to black, One of the most curious re-
sults of domestication is that the drake, which in the wild state is strictly mon-
ogamous, becomes freely polygamous.
The wild Mallards are easily tamed, if taken when very young, but it requires
many generations to breed outall their wild habits ; this has been done in the case
of the common duck by adding to their weight through abundant supplies of
food, so that flight becomes more difficult. In confinement they will breed
treely with the tame ducks, the hybrids thus produced being monogamous.
This fertility of the hybrids is one proof of the common origin of the Mallard
and the domestic duck ; another is found in the fact that purely bred wild ducks
have shown, when bred in domestication, a marked tendency toward variation.
Thus Mr. Teebay states that he has had a strain of white dueks to appear among
some wild ducks which he was breeding, and this strain had reproduced itself at
the time of his writing.*
THE WOOD DUCK OR SUMMER DUCK.
This duck, Aix sponsa of the naturalists, sometimes, though improperly, called
the Carolina duck, is found throughout the greater part of North America, be-
ing a permanent resident of the warmer regions, and a summer migrant to the
northward. It is the most beautiful of waterfowl, except its cousin, the Man-
darin duck, and on this account has been bred in domestication, although not
for a sufficient length of time to overcome its wild propensities.
In the natural state the Wood Duck makes its nest in the woods—hence its
name—in the hollow of a tree, overhanging the water if possible. Its eggs are
smaller than a hen’s and have surfaces like polished ivory.t
The drake is about nineteen or twenty inches long, with a green head, glossed
with purple and surmounted with a pendant crest or plume of green, bronze and
velvet; the upper part of the throat is white; the breast chestnut; the sides
*Tegetmeier. Gill. Ul
194 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
yellowish, banded with black ; the lower parts nearly white; the wings and tail
have black, white, purple and bluein bands, spots and shadings. The plumage
of the ducks is not so showy, and from June to September the drake is more
plainly attired.
THE MANDARIN DUCK.
This duck, Aix galericulata, is a native of China. In plumage it considerably
resembles the American Wood duck; but it has, in addition to the flowing crest,
a peculiar shaped wing, which rises over the back in the form of a lady’s fan,
from which it also receives the name of the Fan-winged duck.
The Mandarin duck is domesticated in China, and attempts have been made
to introduce it into America, through the public parks of New York and the
Zoological Garden at Fairmount, Philadelphia.
In disposition it is very timid, and in size about like the Teal.
THE ROUEN DUCK.
The name of this duck is supposed to be a corruption of the word roan, since
the origin of the breed has no connection with the city of Rouen, as its name
would indicate, while the word roan, or gray, would well describe its color. The
Rouen duck is simply the wild Mallard domesticated, and enlarged during the
process of domestication; the coloring of its plumage being almost identical
with that of the Mallard, so nearly so, in fact, that “ the markings of the wild
species are considered as the criteria of perfection by the judges and fanciers of
the present day,”* while the interbreeding of the Rouen and the Mailard has no
effect upon the markings of the former, and its size returns after the third or
fourth cross.
Rouen ducks have, like Toulouse geese, an abdominal protuberance, which
sometimes becomes so developed in over-fat spefimens as to drag upon the ground,
to the detriment of the feathers.
They are very hardy, dull and lethargic in “their movements, caring little for
water except to drink. They reach a large size, weighing eighteen to nineteen
pounds to the pair. As egg producers they are excellent, laying a large number
of large, thick-shelled eggs, which should average three ounces and a half in
weight. (See illustration, page 173.)
THE AYLESBURY DUOK.
This is a large breed, weighing seventeen to eighteen pounds to the pair; in
color both sexes are pure white, with broad, pale flesh-colored bills, which should
not show any dark marks or stains.
Aylesburys, if well fed, are good layers; the eggs laid by the best strains be-
ing pure white. They are inclined to become over-fat; in which condition both
sexes are sterile.
These ducks are largely reared and fattened for the London markets by the
farmers of the neighborhood of Aylesbury; being sent to market, when properly
*Tegetmeier.
DHE CA VUGA SB GA CK DUCE 195
managed, at eight to ten weeks of age. By careful feeding they may be induced
to begin Jaying by Christmas, when their eggs are set under hens, and the duck-
lings kept rapidly growing until ready for market.
MUSCOVY DUCKS.
Muscovy aucks are of two varieties—the white and the colored; the former
being pure white, the latter blue-black, more or less broken with white feathers.
The name Muscovy is a corruption of the term musk, this term referring to the
musk-like odor of the skin, which odor is dissipated, however, in cooking.
These ducks exist in the wild state in South America, belonging to the genus
Cairina, previously referred to, andare also domesticated there to a considerable
extent.
The drake weighs ten to eleven pounds, and differs from the drakes of Mallard
origin in having a large head, and bare, scarlet-colored cheeks, the base of the
bill being carunculated with the same color; in*the feathers at the back of the
head being re-curved, as if haying been rubbed the wrong way; and in the long,
straight-feathered tail.
The duck is much smaller than the drake, weighing but five to seven pounds.
They have the same bare head of the drakes, but in other respects differ less
from ordinary ducks.
Muscovies are capable of sustaining themselves fora long time in flight, hence
they are difficult to confine; while the drakes are extremely quarrelsome, being
as ugly in disposition as in appearance. The ducks are but moderate layers,
and their flesh is only palatable when young, so that they are not a desirable
breed to cultivate, under ordinary circumstances. (See illustration, page 177.)
THE CURL-CRESTED DALMATION DUCK.
This duck is descended from the Muscovy, through one parent at least, and is
distinguished by a crest of intensely black, curled feathers. It also has the
naked cheeks, the difference in size between the sexes, and the long tail, desti-
tute of curled feathers of the Muscovy; while it is more quiet in disposition, and
fonder of foraging in the water, a better layer, and more easily fattened than
that breed.
These ducks are reared in large numbers in Dalmatia and the adjacent islands.
of the Adriatic, but have not yet been introduced into this country.
THE CAYUGA BLACK DUCK.
This fine breed is American, and is supposed to have originated in the neigh-
borhood of Cayuga Lake, New York, by a cross between the wild black, or
Buenos Ayres duck, and the Mallard. This supposition may, or may not be cor-
rect, as the breed has been cultivated many years, and all definite trace of its
origin is lost. ;
The characteristic markings of the Cayuga duck are a black color throughout,
except a narrow white collar around the-neck, and white flecks in the breast,
which latter tend to increase with age, and are avoided by breeders as much as
196 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
possible. Both ducks and drakes have a greenish tinge about tne head—this be-
ing brighter in the drake, and both show a slight tendency toward a brownish
tinge in the plumage.
The Cayugas are very hardy, nearly as large as the Rouens (weighing sixteen
to seventeen pounds to the pair), good layers, and easily fattened. They are very
quiet in their habits, and a fence a foot high will turn them. They commence
laying by the end of March, and lay fifty to ninety eggs before desiring to sit.
They are good sitters, but careless mothers, hens being for these, as for most
other ducklings, the best mothers. (See illustration, page 181.)
THE PEKIN DUCK.
This, the largest of all known breeds of ducks, was first imported from Pekin,
China, by Mr. James E. Palmer, of Stonington, Connecticut, andlanded in New
York on the 14th day of March, 1873.
In color the Pekins are clear white, with a faint yellowish tinge to the lower
feathers, which are very thick and downy. The wings are short, hence the birds
are easily confined. They are very hardy, and care little for water except for
drinking. They are exceptionally large layers, the pair first imported laying
over one hundred and twenty-five eggs each, during the first season, notwith-
standing the exhaustion attendant upon their importation, which was fatal to
the larger part of the lot originally shipped from Pekin, while during the next
season one of this same pair laid one hundred and eighty-seven eggs, and the
other nearly as many, and one of the early hatched ducklings began laying in
August.
The recurved feather in the tail of the drake is, in addition to the difference
in voice—that of the duck being much coarser—the distinguishing mark of the
sexes, and also shows that the Pekin belongs to the Mallard family of ducks.
A second importation of these ducks has been made by Mr. Palmer, by which
it is hoped to stop the deterioration of this fine breed through in-breeding. Only
judicious crossing, combined with intelligent selection, will maintain its present
superiority. (See illustration, page 187.)
THE CRESTED WHITE DUCK.
This variety is remarkable for the large tuft of feathers on top of the head, re-
sembling the crest of Polish fowls. In some eases this crest attains a diameter
of three inches.
THE HOOKED-BILL DUCK.
This is an old breed, described as early as 1676, and frequently delineated by
the old Dutch masters. Its characteristic is a turning down of the bill.
THE PENGUIN DUCK.
This breed is characterized by greater length of the upper bones of the leg,
which causes it to assume a half-erect attitude, somewhat resembling that of the
Penguin.
These breeds are but variations of the ordinary duck, which have been per-
petuated by the care of man.
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MANAGEMENT OF DUCKS. 199
THE FARM-YARD DUCK.
This, among ducks, is what the ordinary dunghill, or barn-door fowl, is among
chickens, and is far inferior to the Rouen, Aylesbury, Cayuga or Pekin breeds:
THE LABRADOR, BLACK EAST INDIAN OR BUENOS AYRES DUCK.
This duck is another instance of misapplication of geographical names, since
it is neither common in Labrador nor in the East Indies. The British Zoologi-
cal Society received its first specimens from Buenos Ayres, but this fact alone is
not sufficient evidence that they originated in that locality.
This breed, by the curled feather in the tail of the drake, shows its relationship
to the Mallard, and is regarded merely as a variation of that species, although
its color is quite different, being of a deep, lustrous black throughout, in both
sexes.
These ducks do not become so thoroughly domesticated but that they will take
long flights from the barn-yard in search of food or water, sometimes absenting
themselves for days together, but generally returning at the approach of night-
fall,
In size the Buenos Ayres duck is very small, and among fanciers it and the
Call-ducks correspond to the Bantams among chickens, and are bred especially
for smallness of size.
CALL-DUCKS.
This name is given to two varieties of smali domestic ducks, the white and the
gray ; both differing from the ordinary breeds in their small size. In color the
Gray Call should be an exact counterpart of the wild Mallard, and the White
Call should be pure white. Its bill, however, is not flesh-colored like that of
the Aylesbury, but is a clear, unspotted yellow, any othercolor disqualifying the
birds from competition in the show-pen.
Call-ducks, as their name implies, are remarkable for their loud and continu-
ous quacking, in a shrill, high note, which renders them valuable to the sports-
man as decoy ducks.
MANAGEMENT OF DUCKS.
With regard to the management of the duck-yard we cannot do better than to
quote the following directions, written by Fanny Field for the Prairie Farmer:
“Every farmer who has a pond or stream of water on his premises should
keep a few pairs of ducks, at least. As arule, where there is any market within
a reasonable distance of the farm, ducks and ducklings may be profitably reared.
Young ducks, in good condition, always command a good price in city markets,
their feathers sell at a good price, and the eggs for cooking, and a roast duck.
occasionally, make tempting additions to the farmer’s table. A good many
farmers, who live too far from market to render it profitable to raise ducks for
sale, would find that it would pay to raise them for feathers, and for meat for
their own tables. Where one is blessed with a family of children the entire
200 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
charge of a flock of ducks might be given over to the little folks, and they would
take an infinite amount of pleasure in caring for the ducklings, collecting the
eggs, feeding the old ducks, and watching their antics in the water. And then
your little folks would be learning something all the time, and, take my word
for it, there is nothing so good for children as to give them something to care for
—to have them feel a sense of responsibility.
“About the ‘best breed,’ the Pekin, Rouen and Aylesbury are the three lead-
ing varieties of ducks, and experienced breeders rank them in the order named.
Some attempts have been made by breeders of the Rouens and Aylesburys to
run down the Pekins, claiming that the Rouens would at maturity outweigh
the Pekins, and that the Aylesburys were superior as table birds. I ean say
nothing against the Rouens and Aylesburys. Both are fine, large ducks, pro-
lific layers, and breed well; but I snow that the Pekins, when pure bred, are
the best breed of ducks that we have in the United States. For early maturity,
laying quality, size, and as table fowls, they have no superior in this country.
When any one says that the average Rouens will, at maturity, outweigh the
Pekins, he says what every breeder, who has fairly tried both breeds, knows to
be incorrect. W. H. Todd, of Vermillion, Ohio, once exhibited a pair of Rouens
that weighed nineteen and three quarter pounds, and at that time they were the
largest pair of Rouens in the country, if not in the world, but I have sold
dozens of pairs of Pekins that weighed twenty and twenty-two pounds a pair.
I once had a pair that weighed twenty pounds at eight months of age.
* All ducks are naturally inclined to lay around any where, but by proper
management this habit may be overcome and all the eggs saved. A pen or yard
should be made somewhere near the pond or stream, if not too far from the
house, and the ducks driven or coaxed into the pen at night. Asducks always
lay at night, or very early in the morning, the eggs can be collected early in the
morning, the ducks fed and turned out for the day. By feeding only at
night and morning, regularly, and always at the pen or yard, the ducks will
soon come regularly at sundown for their food, and can then be shut up for the
night. But don’t ever give your ducks a hearty supper and then shut them up
all night without water; if you do you may find’some dead ducks the next
morning.
“Have a trough of water in the pen, or at the feeding place. For a small
flock a rail pen may be constructed and covered with boards. Have one side
higher than the other, so that the board roof will shed rain. I have a good-
sized yard near the water, surrounded by a picket fence, and with a long, low
shed across the north side. Nests are placed along the back side of the shed,
and the floor is well-covered with dry gravel and earth, which keeps it free from
filth. This spring I intend to extend the fence, so as to inclose a portion of the
stream, and putin water-gates, so that there will be plenty of water in the yard
at all times. Of course the ducks are only confined in the yard at night, but I
find that in winter and during the cold rains of early spring and late fall, they
spend a good deal of the time under the shed.
“As ducks frequently lay for two or three months before they take a notion
to rear a family, it is necessary, especially when one wishes to raise a large num-
ber of them, to set some of the first-laid eggs under hens. The same directions
MANAGEMENT OF DUCKS. 201
given for preparing nests and setting hens on their own eggs must be attended
to when setting them on ducks’ eggs. Do not crowd the nest; five ducks’ eggs
are enough for a small hen, and seven or eight for a Brahma or Cochin. Unless
the eggs are set on the ground, particular attention must be paid to the sprink-
ling with tepid water during the last two weeks of incubation. Sprinkle slightly
every day while the hen is off for food. Neglect this, and your chances for
ducklings will be greatly lessened.
“ Ducks’ eggs usually hatch well. With fresh eggs that have not been chilled,
and have been carefully handled, you may count on ducklings at the rate of
ninety for every one hundred eggs set. [ don’t think it pays to hatch ducklings
very early in the season, unless one wishes to raise some extra large birds for
exhibition, Ducklings grow rapidly, and if hatched in April and May will grow
to a good size for the winter market.
“The proper time for picking ducks may be ascertained by catching two or
three out of your flock and pulling out a few feathers here and there; if they
puli hard and the quills are filled with bloody fluid the feathers are not ‘ripe,’
and must be leit a while longer; but if they come out easily, and the quills are
clear, the feathers are called ripe, and the birds should be picked at once, or
they will lose the greater partof them. To pick a duck before the feathers are
fully ripe is to injure the bird very much. You will find a bunch of long, rather
coarse feathers under each wing; do not pluck them, they support the wings.
When picking take but few feathers ata time between the thumb and forefinger,
and give a short, quick jerk downward.
“With conparatively little practice you will get the ‘knack’ of picking easily
and rapidly. Before commencing, tie the duck’s legs together—not with a
cord that may cut into the flesh and lame the bird, but with a tolerably wide
strip of cloth—and if the ducks are inclined to pinch with their bills, draw an
old cotton stocking over their heads; but with the exceptions of now and then a
vicious old drake, our Pekins are as tame and peaceable as kittens, so we never
bother the ducks nor ourselves with ‘night caps.’ Handle laying ducks care-
fully, and sitting ducks and those you intend to set soon should not be picked.
When handling young ducks do not lift or carry them by the legs with the head
hanging downward ; their bodies are heavy, their bones tender and easily broken,
and their joints may be dislocated. In hot weather a great deal of the down may
be taken from the drakes, but the down should never be taken in cold weather.
Ducks ean usually be picked from four to six times a year.”
For the Pekin and Cayuga ducks water to swim in is by no means a necessity ;
indeed some breeders claim that they do better without it. The young duck-
lings enjoy it very much, however, and they may easily be satisfied by sinkinga
shallow box in the ground near the barn-yard pump.
The food of the ducklings may be very much the same as for young chickens.
They are more easily raised than chickens, being hardier, and free from that
scourge of chickenhood—the gapes. When very young, however, they should
not be exposed to heavy rain-storms.
Ducks are voracious eaters, and to handle them profitably the surplus should
be marketed as soon as fit, keeping through the fall and winter only those nec-
essary for breeding stock.
CHAPTER XX.
GEESE AND SWANS.
Geese belong to the family Anatide of modern ornithologists, and sub-family
Ansering, The common domestic goose is supposed to have descended from the
wild Gray-Lag goose of northern Europe, Anser ferus or A cinereus of the natur-
alists. This species has at one time extended from the British islands to China,
and was formerly quite numerous in England, breeding in the fen-marshes oi
that country. Of late years, however, it does not breed to any extent south of
Seotland. er.
The Gray-Lag is regarded as the parent of four of our ordinary varieties of
geese; namely, the common gray and white goose, the white Embden, or Bremen
goose, the gray Toulouse goose, and the peculiar white Sebastopol goose.
The ordinary wild goose of America is the Canada goose, Anser Canadensis,
which has been domesticated here to a very limited extent, but has not become
the parent of any thoroughly domesticated breed, like the turkey, or the com-
mon goose.
A third species which has representatives in domestication is A. Cygnoides, or
Cygnopsis Cygnoides or the swan-like goose, represented by the knobbed Chinese
geese.
A fourth species is the Egyptian goose (Chenalopex), which has sometimes been
bred in this country, but presents few marks of value.
Besides these are numerous wild species, including the Bean-goose and the
Pink-footed goose of Britain, the Snow-geese of North America, and many others.
THE COMMON GOOSE.
This is one of the most anciently domesticated of fowls, as shown by the fact
that it was mentioned, as being in domestication, by Homer, and that geese were
kept in the Capitol at Rome, 388 B. C., as sacred to Juno; this sacredness imply-
ing great antiquity.*
Naturalists are not fully agreed as to the present form of the common goose,
but the preponderance of opinion is in favor of ascribing its origin to the wild
Gray-lag goose of northern Europe; its difference in color from that species be-
ing a much smaller variation than has occurred in the cases of most other
anciently domesticated animals.
In the wild Gray-lag, the male and female are of the same dusky hue, while in
the tame species the gander is generally pure white, and the goose dusky on the
*Darwin, Variation get: and Plants, etc., Vol. I, p. 302.
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GEESE, 205
wings, in this respect resembling the markings of the two sexes of the Rock
goose ( Bernicla antarctica) of Terra del Fuego and the Falkland islands.*
The tendency toward a white plumage would also be encouraged by the eustom
of plucking the feathers, as it has been noticed in birds of colored plumage that
the loss of a feather at other times than the moulting period, is liable to be fol-
lowed by the growth of a white feather in its place.
THE TOULOUSE GOOSE.
This is a large, gray goose, its color being brownish-gray on the back, and
lighter on the belly. The skin of the breast and belly shows a tendency to hang
in folds, as shown in the illustration on page 191, a tendency which detracts
from the value of the breed for market purposes, as it gives the impression of
greater age than the goose may actually possess.
The Toulouse goose has come to us by way of England, where it has been bred
for many years. Its name would indicate a French origin, were not the geo-
graphical names of fowls so misleading. It iseasily fattened, sometimes reaching
a weight of sixty pounds to the pair, and its cross with the common goose is
thought to be even larger than the pure breed.
THE EMBDEN, OR BREMEN GOOSE.
This large, white goose is probably of Dutch origin, as its name indicates; Mr.
Hewitt (English) states that his best specimens were imported from Holland)
while the first ever brought to America were imported irom Bremen by John
Giles, of Providence, R. I., and Colonel Samuel Jaques, of Medford, Mass., some
sixty years ago.
Mr. Hewitt gives this breed a decided preference over the Toulouse, on account
of their white feathers (both sexes being pure white), which are worth more in
market than colored ones, and on account of the absence in the young birds of
the pendant abdominal pouch of the Toulouse, and their earlier laying.
In weight the two breeds run very closely together, and either is undoubtedly
a great improvement over the common goose.
THE SEBASTOPOL GOOSE.
This goose is remarkable for its peculiar curled plumage, which is better rep-
resented in the cut (see page 203) than it can be by averbal description. In size
the Sebastopol goose is small, its chief merit being its oddity. In color itis pure
white.
It was first exhibited in England in 1860, by Mr. T. H. D. Bayly, who imported
it from Sebastopol. In this country it is sometimes called the Danubian goose,
and is said to be common along the Danube.
THE CANADA OR AMERICAN WILD GOOSE.
This goose, as previously stated, belongs to a different species from the forego-
ing, a fact further emphasized by its failure to produce a fertile cross with the
common goose.
*Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants, ete., Vol. I., p. 308.
206 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
The Canada goose is occasionally exhibited at poultry-shows, but it does not
breed readily in confinement, even when captured very young. In size it is much
smaller than the common goose, which, with the fact that it would take many
generations to breed out its wild disposition, gives little encouragement to the
attempt to domesticate it.
CHINESE GEESE.
Of the Chinese geese, representing the species Cygnoides, we have three vari-
eties, of which the largest and most popular is
THE HONG KONG GOOSE,
sometimes called the African goose. These geese have been known in America
for about thirty years, but have not yet become very common, owing partly, no
doubt, to the fact that they lay but few eggs as compared with the Bremen and
Toulouse.
Some of the earliest importations of these geese are recorded to have weighed
fifty-six pounds per pair(goose and gander), and forty to fifty pounds to the pair
is not an uncommon weight.
These geese are especially valuable for crossing upon the common goose, such
crosses being of large size, quiet and productive, and no doubt we shall soon
have improved American varieties which will combine the good qualities of the
foreign and the common breeds, just as we have among chickens.
The Hong Kong. goose is brown in color, in this respect resembling the Tou-
louse, but it is distinguished by the horny knob at the base of the upper mandi-
ble, which gives it the specific name of cygnotides. Our illustration on page 197
gives a better idea of its appearance than any verbal description can.
BROWN AND WHITE CHINA GEESE.
These geese have the knobbed bill of the Hong Kong goose, but they are
smaller in size, being smaller even than the common goose. In shape, however,
they are very elegant, having an upright, swan-like carriage, and on this account
are muchesteemed. The Brown variety is of dark plumage, resembling that of
the Hong Kong, and with a dark stripe running down the back of the neck; the
White variety is of pure white plumage, but in size and shape the counterpart
of the Brown.
THE EGYPTIAN GOOSE.
This variety.is recognized by the American Standard, although it is bred to
but a limited extent. It belongs to the genus Chenalopex, and some naturalists
are inclined to classit with the duck, rather than with the goose family, on ac-
count of the males having the peculiar enlargement at the junction of the
bronchial tubes with the trachea, which is characteristic of the ducks.
This classification is supported by the fact recorded by Darwin. of the inter- |
breeding of these geese and the Penguin variety of the common duck in the En«
glish Zoological Gardens.
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GEESE. 209
In size and form these geese are somewhat small and slender; their plumage
is generally gray, shading into chestnut and yellow on the breast and under
parts, and into white on the shoulders. The feathers are beautifully pencilled
with black lines, which unite to form a stripe, or bar, across the wings, of a rich
metallic lustre. ;
These geese have the reputation of being unproductive.
THE CEREOPSIS GOOSE.
This curious goose, the Cereopsis Nova-Hollandi«, is so called from the cere o1
wax-like coating which covers a large portion of the beak. It is a native of
Australia, where it has, however, become almost extinct. It is some times also
called the Cape Barron goose, from being found among the Cape Barron islands,
in Bass’s straits. It is of large size; of a brownish-gray color ; bears confinement
well, breeding without difficulty, feeding on grass, like the common goose, and
fattening readily ; but it is very quarrelsome in disposition, which detracts from
its value as a domestic fowl.
This goose has been bred at the Zoological Gardens in England, but has not
generally been brought into domestication. The good qualities which it pos-
sesses would seem to justify the attempt to breed out its faulty disposition, by
crossing with more peaceable breeds.
THE MANAGEMENT OF GEESE.
If the goose is well fed and housed she will commence laying early in the
spring, and will lay in the neighborhood of a dozen eggs, when she will want
to sit. Her time of incubation is about twenty-nine days. The goslings are
hardy, and require about the same attention as ducklings, except that grass and
water are more necessary tothem. Grass is the principal food of geese during
the summer, and in pursuit of this food they are apt, when kept in large flocks,
to injure the pastures for other stock, both by fouling them with their droppings
and by close grazing. They do not bite off the grass like cattle and sheep, but
pull it off, frequently bringing along a portion of the root.
As they lay so few eggs, geese are kept only for their flesh and feathers. The
latter are plucked two or three times during the summer, and the annual yield
is from a pound to a pound and a quarter, worth from forty to sixty cents a
pound, while a good, fat, young goose should weigh ten to fourteen pounds,
dressed, in the fall, and be worth from one to two dollars.
Geese live to a considerable age—ten to twenty, or even forty years—and the
females are better layers and better mothers after they are two or three years
old. The ganders, however, become pugnacious and unproductive, hence they
should not be kept beyond two or three years. For breeding purposes there
should be one gander for every three or four geese.
The disposition of geese to wander about is one of the drawbacks to keeping
them, and no one should undertake it whose fences are not good enough to pre-
vent them from trespassing upon neighbors. By clipping their wings they are
very easily restrained.
210 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
SWANS.
These, the most elegant of all water-fowls, are becoming, as they deserve, more
and more common in our public parks, and we hope that the time is not far dis-
tant when their cultivation shall be considerably extended. About ten species
of swans are known to naturalists, of which but three have been domesticated,
namely, the White swan, which is of the two European species, Cygnus olor (Red-
billed swan), and C. immutabilis (Polish swan), and the Black swan of Australia,
Chenopis atrata.
The following notes on the habits of the White swan were communicated to the
Poultry World by W. D. Davis, of Warner, N. H.:
“When we consider how many bodies of water there are which might be
graced by them it is to be regretted that so little is known of these, the most ele-
gant and graceful fowls in the world. There are in this country two kinds, the
Black and the White; the latter being handsomer, more common and more
docile. Not so large a body of water is necessary for them as one would natur-
ally suppose. We remember a pairin Maryland that occupied, in common
with ducks and geese, a pool of water twenty-five feet across, and not over three
feet deep. The swans remained nine tenths of the time in the water, hardly
ever coming on shore. Their food was wheat-bread, grass, and green corn-fodder;
the latter they were very fond of. To settle the question whether they would
eat grain when they could get green food, we moved them to another small
pond, and on the edge of it poured down, in a heap, equal quanties of corn and
oats, continuing to feed them as before. The grain was not touched until it
sprouted, when they picked off the green blades only.
“ When left to themselves, they slept in the middle of the pond at night. One
morning in December, the night having been unexpectedly cold, we found them
completely surrounded by ice two inches thick. We then removed them toa
room in the poultry-house, giving them water, bread, cabbage leaves, ete., which
was their food for the winter.
‘Early in the spring they lay eggs considerably larger than goose eggs; fre-
quently only two, and rarely over eight in number. After sitting thirty-five
days the young swans, or cygnets, are hatched. They, being very hardy, are
easily raised, and are considered a great delicacy by the epicure. The old ones
care for the young with great vigilance, and, if the pond be of the proper size,
require little or no food. As they live most peaceably in pairs, it is advisable to
have only that number, though more can be kept, as, for instance, at the Cen-
tral Park, New York. Being long-lived (having been known to live one hun-
dred years in England), less troublesome than other fowls, and also very quiet,
they should have a decided preference over their more brilliant and noisy rival,
the peafowl. We hope the day is not far distant when not only public parks
will be graced by these lovely birds, but also the private grounds of every lover
of the beautiful.”
The Black swan is smaller than the White variety, and is more shy in dispo-
sition, owing chiefly, no doubt, to having been in domestication a comparatively |
short time. Atpresent it is found, in this country, chiefly in the parks of our
larger cities. This bird is well shown in the illustration on page 207.
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CHAPTER XXT.
PIGEONS.
A thorough discussion of the various breeds of pigeons would fill a volume,
as the described varieties of the domesticated pigeon number nearly three hun-
dred; moreover, pigeons are rather to be considered as pets than as_ profit,
able poultry, hence we shall only attempt here to give a short description of a
few of the more characteristic breeds, with general hints as to their manage-
ment.
The wild species of pigeons are also very numerous, several being peculiar to
North America, and numerous others being known in other continents. Those
which are of most interest here are the common Turtle Dove, or Carolina pigeon
(Columba Carolinensis), and the Migratory, or Passenger pigeon (C. migratoria).
These are too well known over the whole United States east of the Rocky
mountains, to need description here. The species, however, which is believed
to be the parent form of the domestic dove, or pigeon, is the Rock pigeon
(C. livia), of Europe and Asia. This pigeon does not nest in trees, but on the
ground or among rocks; it is easily domesticated, social in its habits, and breeds
readily with the domestic varieties. These facts, taken in connection with the
fact that the domestic pigeon manifests great awkwardness in perching in
trees, and seems nearly or quite incapable of nesting there, certainly indicate a
close relationship between it and some one or more of the wild Rock pigeons, of
which there are several varieties.
For convenience in classification, Mr. Darwin has arranged the different vari-
eties of the domestic pigeon into four groups; these he has divided into eleven
races; and these into sub-races, each containing one or more varieties.
The first group includes but a single race, that of the Pouters. These are dis-
tinguished by the abnormal size of the csophagus, which is barely separated
from the crop, and is capable of being inflated to an astonishing size. The beak
is of moderate dimensions. This race is divided into four sub-races as follows:
1. The improved English Pouter.—In good specimens of this breed the beak
will be nearly buried when the csophagus is fully expanded. The males
“pout” more than the females, and take great pride in their power. The bird
appears to stand almost upright.
2. The Dutch Pouter.—This is thought to be the parent form of the preceding.
The birds are smaller than English Pouters.
3. The Lille Pouter.—A variety of the Dutch Pouter, in which the esophagus
assumes a spherical form, as if the bird had swallowed a large orange.
4. The common German Pouters.—In this breed the cesophagus is much less
‘distended, and the bird stands less upright.
[211]
212 THE COMPLETE: POULLIRY BOO.
The second group comprises the three races of Carriers, Runts and Barbs.
These, especially the Carriers and Runts, grade into each other by almost imper-
ceptible degrees, while the Carriers also pass, through foreign breeds, into the
Rock pigeon. This group is characterized by the beak being long, with the
skin over the nostrils often carunculated or wattled, and with that around the
eyes bare and also carunculated.
The Carriers (Race II.) have elongated, narrow, pointed beaks; eyes sur-
rounded by much naked, generally carunculated, skin; neck and body elon-
gated. They include four sub-races, namely:
1. The Mnglish Carrier.—This bird is of large size, with a greatly elongated
beak, neck and tongue. The carunculation around the eyes, over the nostrils,
and under the lower mandible is excessive. Birds of this race are too valuable
to be flown as carriers.
2. Dragons, Persians, or Bagdad Carriers.—The English Dragon is smaller and
less caruneulated than the English Carrier.
3. Bagadotten Tauben, of Neumeister.—A German breed, closely allied to the
Runts. Peculiar from having a long, curved beak. Body large; feathers of
wings and tail comparatively short.
Bussorah Carriev.—A Persian breed, which differs from the Bagdad Carrier in
bearing a greater resemblance to the Rock pigeon.
The names applied in different parts of Europe and in India to the several
kinds of carriers all point to Persia or the surrounding countries as being the
source of this race.
The Runts (Race III.) have long, massive beaks, and bodies of great size.
The various sub-races shade into each other by such small differences that an
exact classification is impossible. The following five sub-races have been based
upon the most prominent differences:
1. Scanderoon of English writers.—Birds of this sub-race differ from the Bag-
adotten only in having the beak less curved downward, and in the naked skin
around the eyes and over the nostrils being but little carunculated.
2. Pigeon cygne and Pigeon bagadais (Scanderoon of French writers).—These
differ from the preceding in greater length of wing, shorter beak, and greater
carunculation.
3. Spanish and Roman Runts.—Heavy, massive birds, with shorter necks, legs
and beaks than the foregoing races; but slightly carunculated; scarcely to be
distinguished as separate sub-races.
4. Tronfo of Aldrovandus.—A variety described by Aldrovandus, but probably
now extinct. -
Murassa (Adorned Pigeon), of Madras.—A handsome, cheequered bird from
Madras, intermediate between the Rock pigeon and a very poor variety of Runt
or Carrier.
Barbs (Race IV.)—These have short, broad, deep beaks; naked skin around
the eyes, broad and carunculated; skin over the nostrils slightly swollen. This
race is shown to be closely related to the Carriers, especially in the newly-
hatched of both races, which resemble each other much more closely than do
young pigeons of other and equally distinct breeds. The Barbs are really short-
beaked Carriers,
FANTAILS—TURBITS—O WLS—TUMBLERS. 218
The third group is artificial, including a heterogenous collection of distinct
forms. It may be defined by the beak, in well-characterized specimens of the
different races, being shorter than in the Rock pigeon, and by the skin around
the eyes not being much developed. It includes the races of Fantails, Turbits
and Owls, Tumblers, Indian Frill-backs and Jacobins.
The Fantails (Race V.) are represented by the sub-race of Huropean Fantails,
in which the tail is expanded after the manner of that of the strutting male
turkey or peacock; the oil-gland is aborted; the body and beak rather short.
The number of the tail-feathers is used as a characteristic for the different vari-
eties; it varies from twelve up to thirty-two or thirty-four, the normal number
of the genus Columba being twelve. The neck is thin and broad backward; the
breast broad and protuberant; the feet small. The carriage of the Fantails is
very different from that of other pigeons. In good birds the head touches the
tail feathers, and the birds walk in a stiff manner, while the neck has a conyul-
sive, trembling motion.
A second sub-race of Fantails is also found in Java. The tail is less devel-
oped than the preceding, and the oil-gland is not aborted. Fantails were
known in India previous to 1600, and it seems probable that the Java Fantail
represents the breed in its earlier and less improved condition.
The Turbits and Owls (Race VI.) have divergent feathers along the front of
the neck and breast; the beak is very short, and rather thick vertically; the
esophagus somewhat enlarged. The Turbits and Owls differ from each other
slightly in the shape of the head; the former have a crest, and the beak is dif-
ferently curved. The feathers in the front of the neck diverge irregularly, like
a frill, and the birds have the habit of continually and momentarily inflating
the upper part of the esophagus, which causes a movement in this frill. The
Pouter inflates both the true crop and the esophagus; the Turbit inflates, ina
much less degree, the cesophagus alone.
The Tumblers (Race VII.) have the habit of tumbling backwards during flight.
The body is generally small; the beak short, sometimes excessively short and
conical. This race includes four sub-races, namely: The Persian, Lotan, Com-
mon, and Short-faced Tumblers, and these sub-races include many varieties which
breed true.
1 Persian Twmblers.—The birds of this sub-race are rather smaller than the
wild Rock pigeon, white and mottled, and slightly feathered on the feet.
2. Lotan, or Indian Ground Tumblers.—White, slightly feathered on the feet,
with the feathers on the head reversed. When gently shaken and then placed
on the ground immediately, they begin tumbling heels over head, ana only stop
when taken up and soothed by blowing in their faces. This habit was recorded
before the year 1600. .
3. Common English Tumblers. These birds are rather smaller than the Persian,
and have the same habits, but tumble better, sometimes spinning round and
round in the air like a wheel. Some varieties begin tumbling almost as soon as
they can fly; at three months old they tumble well, but still fly strong; but by
the second year they tumble so excessively that they mostly give up flying.
The tumbling seems to be an involuntary movement, over which the birds have
no control, although they seem to try to prevent it. Sometimes, when trying to
214 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
fly forward, this tumbling impulse causes them to rise straight upward fora
yard or two.
4. Short-faced Tumblers.—These have short, sharp and conical beaks, with the
skin over the nostrils but little caruneculated. Their heads are nearly globular
and upright in front. They are the smallest of pigeons, weighing some-
times as little as six to seven ounces when two years old. The Short-faced
Tumblérs have almost lost the power of tumbling. There are several sub-
varieties. Z
Indian Friil-backs (Race VIII.)—These are characterized by very short beaks,
and reversed feathers, resembling those of the frizzly fowls.
Jacobins (Race IX.)—In this race the feathers of the neck form a hood; the
wings and tail are long; the beak moderately short. The hood is their most
distinctive feature, and seems to be merely an exaggeration of the crest of re-
versed feathers on the back of the head. The wings and tail are elongated, so
that they are longer than those of the larger Rock pigeon.
The fourth group is characterized by the resemblance of its members to the
Rock pigeon.
The Trumpeter (Race X.) is the only well-marked race of this group. Its
characteristics are a tuft of feathers at the base of the back, eurling forward ;
feet much feathered; voice very peculiar; size exceeding that of the Rock
pigeon. The voice of the Trumpeters is wholly unlike that of any other
pigeon; the coo is rapidly repeated, and is continued for several minutes, hence
theirname. Their feet are so heavily feathered that they almost appear like wings.
Race X. is made to include a number of sub-races which differ but little in
structure from the wild Rock pigeon. Among these are,
1. Laughers.—Small of size, and distinguished by the peculiar voice, which
seems to repeat the word “yahoo, yahoo!”
2. Common Frill-backs.—Beak rather longer than in the Rock pigeon, feathers
reversed. A considerably larger bird than the Rock pigeon. The points of the
feathers, especially on the wing-coverts, are turned upwards, or backwards.
3. Nuns.—These elegant birds are smaller than the Rock pigeon; in young
birds the seutelle on the tarsi and toes are generally of a leaden-black color;
and this is a remarkable character (though observed in a lesser degree in some
other breeds), as the color of the legs in the adult state is subject to very little
variation in any breed. Nuns are symmetrically colored, with the head, pri-
mary wing-feathers, tail and tail-coverts of the same color, namely, black or red,
and the rest of the body white. This breed has retained the same character
since Aldroyandus wrote, in 1600.
4, Spots.—These are but little larger than the Rock pigeon, and with the feet
decidedly smaller. They are symmetrically colored, with a spot ‘on the fore-
head, with the tail and tail-coverts of the same color, the rest of the body being
white. The breed was known in 1676.
5. Swallows.—These birds have a larger spread of wing and tail than the Rock
pigeon, but smaller bodies. Their heads and wings are of the same color as the
Rock pigeon, the rest of the body being white.*
*Variation of Animals and Plants, etc., Vol. I., p:ge 137-165.
tte lit ees yn’)
MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS. 215
' Besides these there are several other breeds of minor importance, in addition to
the varieties of the common Dove-cote pigeon.
Of the above named races the Fantails, Jacobins, Pouters, Tumblers, and Car-
riers or Homing pigeons are best known to American Fanciers.
MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS.
The management of pigeons must be varied to suit the habits of the variety
kept; thus the common Dove-cote pigeon requires little or no care, further than
to provide lofts or nesting-boxes in which they may nest and roost. All domes-
tie pigeons prefer to roost on flat surfaces, as their feet are not adapted to
clinging to poles; they should also have narrow ledges in front of the open-
ings to the loft and nesting-boxes, upon which to alight in entering.
The nesting-boxes should be about three feet long and eighteen inches high
and wide, for each pair of birds, in order to give them room to make two nests,
as they are liable to quarrel and break their eggs if confined to a single nest.
Pine sawdust is one of the best nesting materials, being less congenial to lice.
If space is very limited these nest-boxes may be nailed to the side of a building,
but itis very much better to give the birdsasmall loft, in which to exercise in bad
weather, and to place the nest-boxes in this, either along its sides or on the floor.
Wherever the boxes are placed they shoul be so arranged that one side may be
opened in order to clean out and whitewash the inside occasionally.
The old birds feed the young, of which but one or two are produced at a time,
after an incubation of eighteen days. If many birds are kept, food, in the
shape of grain, peas, ete., should be placed within reach, but they will gather a
large part of their living from the fields and roadsides. The young birds re-
main in the nest until of nearly full size, becoming excessively fat; in this con-
dition they are called sguabs, and are considered great delicacies. Two broods
are often produced during a season, and sometimes three, so that a single pair of
birds may increase to six or eight during a summer.
In the management of the fancy breeds, more care is necessary, as they are
more delicate, and less capable of flight. For these a larger loft should be pro-
vided, and this should have a window with a wire cage attached, so that the
birds, when confined, may still have access to air and sunlight.
The Pouters are not always good parents, and it is sometimes necessary to
give pait of their eggs to birds of other varieties, allowing each pair to raise
one young one in order to dispose of their surplus food, this being found neces-
sary to the health of the birds.
The Carrier pigeons are trained by taking them, in a covered basket, two or
three miles from home, and then liberating them. Such as. fail to reach home
may be considered as worthless. The distances to which they are carried are
successively increased, until they become able to return with certainty and
safety when liberated hundreds of miles from home.
These birds have been employed for the carrying of messages for ages; the
most celebrated instance of their use in modern times being at the siege of
Paris, where, after being carried out of the city in balloons, they returned, bear-
ing long messages, condensed into microscopical space by the process of micro-pho-
tography. On long flights they are expected to average about thirty miles an hour.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE DOMESTICATION OF WILD BIRDS.
The various breeds of fowls which have been described in the foregoing pages
are undoubtedly all descended from a few wild forms. In some cases we are al-
most able to trace the history of a breed back to its original domestication ; but
more often we are led into the dim mists of pre-historic times, from which we see
man emerging, already surrounded by his flocks and herds. Of such non-migra-
tory races as the Chinese and Egyptians neither history nor tradition can point
to the time when they had no domestic animals. With the nomadie races which
settled the western countries, however, their earliest animals were, of course,
such as could accompany them in their frequent pilgrimages and assist them in
their quest for food, of which the most valuable and the earliest tamed would
naturally be the dog. Indeed, the remains of the dog are found associated with
the earliest known human remains. Fowls could only have been added to their
possessions after they had relinquished their nomadic habits, and become a pas-
toral, if not an agricultural people. Hence we should expect to find the original
home of the domestic fowl among those people who have longest been tillers of
the soil, or in Egypt, China, and India, and in these countries we find that the
common fowl, the goose, duck, and peafowl, have been domesticated from time
immemorial. As civilization progressed westward this list was swelled by the
addition of the turkey and the guinea-fowl. The question now arises, are these
all the varieties of birds that may be profitably added to our poultry-yards? In
the discussion of this question it is necessary to consider a few of the points in-
volved in the domestication of a wild animal.
In the first place, the animal so domesticated must possess some quality of use
or beauty which will give it an actual value to man, and, to render this value
permanent, it must possess the ability and disposition to perpetuate its kind un-
der the changed conditions to which it is subjected in domestication. This has
been found the fatal objection to the taming of many kinds of birds and quad-
rupeds—that they would not breed in confinement. In reference to this point
Mr. Darwin adduces numerous examples, chiefly drawn from the experience in,
the management of wild animals and birds at the London Zoological Gardens,,
the old Surrey Gardens, and the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. In the aviaries of
these institutions birds of prey have very seldom been known to couple, and
have still more infrequently produced fertile eggs; of the smaller graminivorous
birds the canary-bird is almost the only one, out of many species which have.
been kept in confinement, that has bred with any regularity; several species
have produced fertile hybrids with the canary, but yet refuse to reproduce their:
ownkind. The parrot, one among the longest lived of birds, and one which has,
long been tamed, yet “breeds so rarely that the event has been thought worth
[216] :
" b> a a
THE DOMESTICATION OF WILD BIRDS. 217
recording in the gravest publications.” Eyen in their native countries, where
they are reared in large numbers, and are kept so tame that they fly freely about
the houses, coming, like pigeons, to be fed, they never breed.
On the other hand, the great pigeon family generally breeds almost as freely
under confinement as when free, and many kinds of gallinaceous birds breed
quite freely in captivity. There are some exceptions here; the common partridge,
for instance, has rarely bred, even when kept in large aviaries; the grouse has
frequently bred when confined, and the pheasant also, though not so freely as
when free.
The ostrich offers a striking example of the difficulty of deciding beforehand
whether an animal will submit to domestication, as it retains its fertility, al-
though somewhat impaired, when removed from its native haunts on desert
plains and in tropical forests to confined enclosures in a temperate climate.
Most waders can be tamed, often with remarkable facility, and the cranes fre-
quently breed freely, yet several birds belonging to this order refuse to breed,
even in their native countries.
The ducks and geese generally breed as freely as the pigeons and the Galline,
but there are some exceptions; thus Audubon kept some common wild or Canada
geese for more than eight years, yet they would not mate, while others have had
them to produce young during the second year. Of the gulls no instance is re-
corded of any variety except the herring-gull (Larus argentatus) ever breeding
in captivity.*
From these examples it will be seen that a serious difficulty is likely to meet
us at the outset in the attempt to bring any new species of fowl under domesti-
cation. Sometimes this difficulty will be found insurmountable, but in most
cases even the most obstinately sterile species have at some time or other pro-
duced offspring in confinement, and, when one is so fortunate as to witness such
a departure from the general habit, the offspring so produced should be care-
fully preserved and bred with its species, with the hope of finding the habit
broken in that case.
In previous pages we have incidentally mentioned several partly domesticated
birds as being worthy of further culture, such as the Honduras Turkey and the
Cereopsis Goose. To these may beadded the Kider Duck, which is partly domes-
ticated in Ireland and Norway, where it frequents low rocky islets near the coast,
and has Jong been afforded encouragement and protection, a heavy fine being
imposed for killing it during the breeding season, while artificial nesting-places
are in many localities contrived for its further accommodation. These nesting-
places are regarded strictly as private property, and are protected as such by
_ law. The ducks nest in these places, laying about five eggs, and bedding them
in down which they pluck from their breasts. These eggs and the down are
then taken by the owner of the “ Eider-fold,’’ when the duck will lay again. To-
wards the end of the season the duck will be allowed to hatch a few eggs to keep
up the stock.
Eiders of different species inhabit all northern coasts. Those of the eastern
United States have been much diminished by persecution, butare still abundant
*WVariation of Animals and Plants, ete., Vol. II., pp. 136-140.
218 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOR:
from Newfoundland northward. Three species alsoinhahit the west coast of the
United States.
Among gallinaceous birds which give the most promise of being profitably
domesticated are: 1. The Guans (Peliponine) of Mexico and the South American
continent. These generally have bare throats, and frequently have wattles. In
habit they are chiefly arboreal, and they readily become tame, but have not
often, if ever, been induced to breed in domestication. They aresaid, however,
to hybridize readily with the common fowl, and in Texas these hybrids are as-
serted to be far superior to the ordinary game fowl for fighting purposes. Some
of the species reach the size of +a small turkey, weighing seven or eight pounds
when full grown; they live principally on leaves, grass, fruits, ete. ¢
2. The Curassows, or Mexican Pheasants. These birdsare worthy of cultivation
for their plumage alone, and for that purpose are kept in our largeraviaries. In
size they are almost equal to the turkey; they have short wings, long and broad
tail, and strong bill. With the exception of a single species found north of
Panama they are confined to the tropical forests of South America, east of the
Andes, and not extending south of Paraguay. They live in small flocks, and
are arboreal in their habits, only occasionally descending to the ground, while
always roosting and nesting in the branches of trees. They feed on fruits, seeds
and insects. They are said to be domesticated in several parts of South Ameri-
ea, and it is said that they were taken to Holland from Dutch Guiana towards
the end of last century and completely acclimatized and domesticated there,
breeding in confinement like ordinary poultry, but the establishments in which
they were kept were broken up during the troubles that followed the French
Revolution. Their flesh is said to be exceedingly white and delicate. The
Mexican Curassow, found from Panama northwards, is about three feet in length,
of a glossy black color, with green and purple reflections over the whole body,
excepting the abdomen and tail-coverts, which are white. In common with the
other species of this genus its head bears a crest of feathers curled forward at
the tips, which can be raised or depressed at will. The female is of a reddish
color, although varying greatly in this respect, and was until lately described as
a separate species—the Red Curassow.
It would certainly seem worth while to make further attempts to domesticate
this bird.
3. The Common Pheasant is kept in a semi-domesticated state in Europe, and
it would seem worth while to make further experiments with that, as well as
with the closely related Grouse and Prairie Hen. The latter, especially, should
receive more attention from American fanciers, since there can be no question
of its adaptitude to our climate, nor of its value for food. When the country
was first settled it ranged from ocean to ocean; but the progress of settlement
has driven it westward, until it has become extremely rare east of the Missis- |
sippi.
With regard to the rearing of pheasants a writer in the English Live Stock
Journal says:
“Common pheasants are certainly difficult to rear, but with care a large pro-
portion of the young ones may be brought to maturity. The eggs should be set
under common hens, small sized ones being selected, and the nests should be
~
Sj ae 2
THE PHEASANT—THE PARTRIDGE—THE OSTRICH. 219
located either on the ground or in boxes filled with damp earth. Before the
young ones are due the nest must be enclosed with boards, or anything that
comes to hand, for young pheasants, unlike chickens, run away from the hen if
disturbed. They must be confined to the coop for about two days by means of
the ‘keep,’ by which time they will have learned the hen’s call, and then they
must be allowed their liberty, or it will beimpossible to rear them. If anything
alarms them they will run to the nearest bush or hedge, but will soon return if
left quite alone. They may be allowed their liberty till about the time they
commence moulting their tails; this is generally my guide as to when to place
them in confinement. They should be fed on a mixture of meal and boiled
meat, chopped fine, the more of the latter the better, and if the weather is cold
or wet, mix a little pepper with the food. If they have access to grass they will
require nothing more but some pure water, kept in the shade; if no grass is near
they must be supplied with green food.”
In France pheasants are reared in large numbers for the Paris market, and
there ants’ eggs are a favorite food. In default of these, meat or flour maggots
are bred for the purpose.
4. The Impeyan Pheasant, which is a native of the Indian jungles, on account
of its large size and beautiful plumage, should at least be added to the aviaries
of our public parks. It is about as large as a hen-turkey; its plumage is chiefly
of iridescent hues of green, steel-blue, violet and bronze, and it has a crest simi-
lar to that of the peacock.
5. The Spruce Partridge is a species of grouse, which was formerly common
in New England, but is now seldom seen south of Canada. Its habits are very
similar to those of other species of grouse.
6. The Virginia Partridge is a similar species, which is found in more southern
localities, and has many of the habits of the common fowl, although it has been
found to be less inclined to breed in confinement than the grouse; while there
are various species of quail, which, though small in size, are worth cultivating
in certain sections. A great drawback to the cultivation of these wild birds is
the propensity of every fellow who can handle.a gun to shoot everything that
can fly, and but little headway can be made until this propensity is held in check
by salutary laws.
Next to the gallinaceous birds the closely related Ostrich family would seem
to be most worthy of attention, This family is represented by several species,
chiefly natives of the southern hemisphere. It is of special interest to the nat-
uralist from possessing the largest representatives of the feathered kingdom;
the common ostrich sometimes attaining a height of eight feet and a weight of
three hundred pounds, while remains of extinct species have been found which
indicate a very much larger growth in pre-historic times. Another point of in-
terest is that the family seems to be becoming extinct; two species, the Dodo,
of Mauritius, and the Solitaire, of Roderiguez, have disappeared within com-
paratively recent times,.and evidences are found of the existence during the
present geological axe of other birds probably belonging to the same family.
Whether domestication can overcome this tendency to extinction is a question
not yet thoroughly settled. As previously stated, it is quite generally believed
that the parent form of the Chinese goose (Anser cygnoides) is now extinct, and
220 THE COMPLETE POULTRY BOOK.
the same is believed with regard to some other forms. This may be the case, or
these forms may be the result of hybridization. At any rate the experiment is
worth making of trying to preserve some of these strange birds.
The Ostrich: This bird, the representative of the family under consideration,
is a native of tropical Africa; in its wild state it is gregarious and polygamous,
the wives of one male laying in the same nest, and the male assisting in incuba-
tion, which work, however, is largely left to the heat of the sun by day, the eggs
being incubated at night to preserve their warmth. This habit, however, is
modified in cooler regions, where incubation is maintained continuously. Lay-
ing continues during incubation, the surplus eggs being supposed by some to be
intended for the food of the young birds, but other authorities consider them
mcrely the result of the polygamous habit of the birds, just as the laying hens in
a farm-yvard will lay in the nests of the sitters, if not prevented.
The ordinary food of the ostrich consists of grass, leaves and seeds, but it does
not altogether reject animal food. It is noted for its propensity to swallow
stones, bits of metal, pieces of leather, ete. These serve the same purpose as
the smaller stones swallowed by the fowls of the farm-yard.
The wings of the ostrich, and of all birds of its family, are too short for flight,
which gives them the name of Brevipennes; but this defect is reeompensed by
an extraordinary fleetness of foot, the ostrich being said to reach a speed of
sixty miles an hour, while half that rate is well authenticated.
The ostriches, as well as the Cassowary and Emu, possess great strength of
leg, which enables them not only to run with great speed, but to strike with
powerful effect. The ostrich strikes forward, and is recorded to have disem-
boweled a man with a blow from its claws; while even the tiger is wary of at-
tacking it. It only fights however, when at bay; its first impulse being flight:
The economic value of the ostrich lies chiefly in its feathers, the coarsest of
which are valuable for feather-dusters, and the finer are in great demand for or-
namental plumes. For these purposes the feathers are worth from one dollar to
two hundred and fifty dollars per pound. The flesh of young ostriches is palat-
able, but that of older birds is inferior. Old birds, when fattened, yield a large
quantity of oil, which is much esteemed for culinary purposes.
The domestication of the ostrich may be said to be an accomplished fact, as
more than thirty-two thousand ostriches were reported as being kept in the vi-
einity of Cape Town in 1865. Ostrich-farms are also reported in Egypt, and they
have been introduced into southern California. Since the camel has been suc-
cessfully acclimated in New Mexico and Arizona it would seem probable that
the ostrich might do equally well. In domestication the adults are kept to
themselves by means of wire fences—one six or seven feet high being sufficient.
In Cape Colony it has been found that a range of six hundred acres of grass was
required for eighty ostriches; grass, when deficient, has been successfully re-
placed by maize.
In feathers and young the annual return of an ostrich is said to be worth $150
to $250; the adult birds belonging to the Khedive of Egypt were valued at $1,000
to $1,500 each.
;
‘
;
PAGE
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American Breeds...............0+ 136
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Cheviot Sheep..
Chinese Geese
Chittagongs, Gray...
CHUESt op cn tact opk s sovcces otviswnne~ addcodeduosbeasce«s) 202 (nRONIbLAPON GS: GAY... .v.sevescveseeosceeaclecost dees
Canadensis. Chittepratsxts tcc st aceviccscteee ee ee ne
PANO PI ORV Mee Sciccoss sche andes cas Cholera, Symptoms of ................ ..62, 68
AT HAGA: MOtbers,..:.62.5.00¢pcen0qbeseitcade es Post Mortem APPeaTVaNCeS......s2s...000.0 65
Asiatic Breeds............ opeker4 Causes 66
PA CANISIN (oo clecosccaes oc cfivs Widestete sabe ganas boch vues se 77 Treatment 66
B Disinfection 69
AGADOTTEN Tauben........:.....ccsceee. 212 Vaccination to Prevent sern ty)
Bagdad Carriers............-.:08-++ - 212 Some Fowls Insusceptible to............... 72
Bakies, Scotch ....53.cic..c0seassoeee 1. 154 Remedies for
Baldness and White Comb.. ue OL !Coching) Bull..c 2. 2tsse
BAMA Seek sa con'se alle ence oeeee == so Yi Black
ILS evecare sevetasee ine soscet a ccsastdeeeenatetaes 148 IMO Ss Scc.tssceneee
BOO LEG WiHTTON oct sceresscccteeoeesceseescc-ttee 148 Characteristics of, General
GAMO ie sen siienasssrasnnttnstdests das ....81, 149 CiNMAM ON aces seses eck ceassosscscuapase
MAN ANESE cette cas cyacstese ake 157 Cuckoo......:..
Pek MOM COCHIN tee cc strensaacess cdacse 151 Dominique... aes
Sebrig! | Perera SRR er creer re 147 GrOUSC! So. cecesicscnnsece =
Walt Cerro nie ta anek os steaucs sea aeset 148 Origin Of-..c...v-4-.
PRAT DS renee ence cent ea nen ta enna ae 212 DATUM SO sacs scaccewteucuswocsdcctees
Blacks Jawa HO W|S.c2ss.:+sesasseaces 61
[221]
Domestication of Wild Birds.....................
Dorkings, Gray or Colored.......
iliveraGMay ct yvsers eseccin
White Pent, een aan’
DDTAG OMS ese ee asennecsnssvecsesunccocseousensees 212
Ducks; Atylesbuny oi: 2x6 cencve cecerce sacs . 194
IBUCTIOSHAI TES ersseccssccet eee 195
Black East Indian....................2- 199
alll Fags ccccses ctomavenewsvccc Oe
INDEX.
PAGE
il INO OBIUNS cacessaccsccsuslesecesssenses Neaetectoesiewsen's 214
Japanese BAN TANS! ..ccaccnuecucvnweancesemen=os 149, 157
Fur-fowls 153
Java Games....... 6 09
DAV AS BIACK......0.c.senccleecssapasadel Meese sneatsennes 99
AWAIT CG eos ccic ew oachiccous ttalocben cose eumins ete lacsa 100
| es BRESSE Fowls 123
La Fleche Fowls....
Mangshans).:--..-----.-.s.-
Large Scale Poultry Management......
Histablishiments strc rtseaceee eae eenes ae
MUANPNEYS. oc. --:-20-s-2--
Laying, to Stop........
POMUINIGUCs eros ove sceeeeoceesee es
Rose-combed White
Life-germs
Liver, Enlargement of in Cholera...
AeviOMiam Sa) GU Aya te tse aaeecas ce cnawet sures cescenss
Mallard Ducks...
Mandarin Duck...
Marketing Poultry
Meleagris ocellata......
Gallopavo.......-...+++
IMereansers:...\-/2: 218
Pyrethrum Lor Wicer ss... o.cc.cscosesneceresecacee 19, 26
Rats INSROUtRV = VAT. s-ceeeseceeesceoteweses 26
FRUINCUIM AISI Soccsses ela oumcesecesenessee ava tm OU.
Roosting Poles, Arrangement of. 30
IROUCIMD IR CK Sia. vsaeerescat ossdascasusasssanen prone WG)
IROU Di acxesacaeecee ae Zeatesiseesisg OO
Rumpkins deaeese et atvdstacotectceedcepecsee ac cae 153
Runts decesasssvepade
|p RTD Way Si COVELE..1.cssccccenecsosccuneaceses<-ceers 25
RUSSIANS VDAC. be21eseaanecsesateanccsmateccvec sass 154
| SatMoy, Dr. D. E., on Chicken Cholera. 61
Scand eroon’.:-: .-ss..--920 72.4 212
Scotch Bakies.......
Sebright Cochins...
Bantams:......::
Sheep of Scotland ....502..-:ccccecccwcnatcczsccernns
Shell, Composition of
Silkies
Sitting hens, Care o
Spanish, White-faced Black.....-...s.00... 121, 124
WWWUDLLC set cc nn cotcecests es ucaccetadacesenannvetcesessss 125
Spots ......... SE SMen renocioeoce 214
St. Jago EG wilh eet ne hee aes 99
Sulphuror Lice 27.2.2... s2cscscceanensorese=s-xas00s 19
ULTANS ee. cee seeeestanshcee ae 150
Sumatra Gamesie. teen nk scceecesscesesessenaceass 109
SWANS! ts-pcqce-ulo< we ...207, 210
S wiallowsiteneccsscsrtcesce oocnedecasscaarercsenecsenaenenss 214
Mum OLS eedsc-+s
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