Our domestic fowls

a
a2

OLNOHOL 4O ALISH3AAINN

CAN)
COa REZ

NN et ROA RARE

“RY STO Mm

v
re

thy)

Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster Row.

THE MONTHLY VOLUME,

EACH BOOK COMPLETE IN ITSELF, OCCASIONALLY
ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS, AND CQNTAIN-
ING ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO PAGES, IN
A GOOD, BOLD TYPE.

SIXPENCE, IN FANCY PAPER COVERS.
TENPENCE, IN CLOTH BOARDS, GILT EDGES.

“‘T never wanted articles on religious subjects half so much as
articles on common subjects, written with a decidedly Christian
tone.”—Dr. ARNOLD.

Penn ws

Tue Committee of the Retigrous Tracr Society
have resolved to publish a volume every month,
adapted to the new development and growing in-
telligence of the times. This series, with the
exception of a few reprints, will be Oria@inaL ;
from the pens of authors of ability in their respective
departments in literature and science :—Scrip-
TURAL; in the principles in which they are written :
—Poputar ; in their style ; so that instead of being
limited to one class of the community, they may
be generally acceptable :—PortaBie; that they
may serve as “‘ hand-books”’ abroad and at home:
—and Economica; the twelve volumes of a year
costing less than three half-pence per week. Thus
while the MONTHLY SERIES will be fully
adapted to the educated Famiuizs of our land, to
Day and Sunpay Scwoots and to the Lisrarizs

2 THE MONTHLY VOLUME.

of mechanics and others, they will supply interest -
ing and valuable reading to a large number of the
people, who can only spare time enough for the
perusal of a small volume, and whose means will
not allow of a more costly purchase.

ISSUE OF THE FIRST YEAR.
THE LIFE OF JULIUS CASSAR.
GLIMPSES OF THE DARK AGES.
WILD FLOWERS OF THE YEAR.
JAMAICA, ENSLAVED AND FREE.
THE TASK AND OTHER POEMS, by Wm. Cowper.
OUR SONG BIRDS.
SOLAR SYSTEM, Parts I. and II. By Dr. Dick.
SKETCHES OF THE WALDENSES.
LIFE OF LUTHER.
BLIGHTS OF THE WHEAT. By the Rev. E. Sipney,

M.A.
ANCIENT JERUSALEM. By Dr. Kr17T0.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION.

SECOND YEAR, ALREADY PUBLISHED.

MAN, IN HIS PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, SOCIAL,
AND MORAL RELATIONS. By W. Newnuam, Esq.

MODERN JERUSALEM. By Dr. Kirro.

LIFE OF CYRUS.

GARDEN FLOWERS OF THE YEAR.

DAWN OF MODERN CIVILIZATION,

LIFE OF LADY RUSSELL.

OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

In the Press.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED.
SKETCHES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

Other Volumes are preparing.

The Committee of the ReLt1g1ous Tract Society
look with confidence to their friends, to aid them
in widely distributing their Monruiy Votumg, in
Famiuies, Scuooits, and GenerAL LiBrariEs ;
while they entreat on this new effort the effectual
blessing of Almighty God.

OUR

DOMESTIC FOWLS.

BY

W. C. L. MARTIN.

,

LONDON:
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY:
Inslituted 1799,

OF
LU BR
M3

TIBRARPS,

MAY 29 1967

CONTENTS.—No. I.

INTRODUCTION . . <
Domestic Poultry .
THE GALLINACEOUS GrouP
The Common Fowl A
Ist. The Malay Gigantic Fowl
2nd. The Javanese Jungle-fowl
8rd. Sonnerat’s Jungle-fowl
The Pea-fowl 5 : -
The Turkey b : :
The Guinea-fowl 2
THE CoLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Gnoue
The Domestic Pigeon .
The Rock Pigeon A 3
The Carrier, or Horseman .
The Dragoon, or Dragon 0
The Pouter c
The Barb 0 e
The Fan-tail 6 4
The Jacobine, or Capper
The Turbit ; C °
The Nun > :
The Trumpeter ;
The Tumbler

The Almond, or Ermine "Tumbler

.

THE SWIMMING, oR NATATORIAL Group

The Domestic Duck

The Domestic Goose- .

The Tame Swan, or Mute Seas
Conclusion . ‘ > :

. .

CONTENTS.—No. II.

Gallus Domesticus—(The commen Fowl) . ° .
Gallus giganleus—(The Malay gigantic Fowl . .
Gallus Bankiva—(The Javanese Jungle-fow!) 5 .
Gallus Sonneratii—(Sonnerat’s Jungle-fowl) . >
Gallus furcatus—(The Fork-tailed Cock of Java) .
Gallus egneus—(The Bronzed Cock of Sumatra)
Euplocamus ignilus—(The Fire-backed Pheasant)

Pavo cristatus—(The Pea-fow]) S : : ; é

Meleagris gallopavo—(The Turkey) . 9 2 . 3

Meleagris ocellata—(The Honduras Turkey) . : ;

Numida Meleagris—(The Guinea-fowl, or Pintado) . °

Columba livia—(The Rock Pigeon) 3 A S 5

Anas sponsa—(The Summer, or Wood Duck of America) .

Anas—(Domestic Duck) . 5 ; b . ; ;

Anas moschata—(Muscovy Duck) 5 : i A Z

Anser erythropus—Flem. The Whi 2
te-fi 2
Anser albifrons—Bechst. he ie Sener

Anser ferus—Flem. .
Anser segetum—Steph. Cee Pease) ;

_Anser Phoeenicopus—(The Pink-foot Goose) a 6 .
be ron } (The Grey lag Wild Gcose) .
Chenalopex A:gypticus—(The Egyptian Goose, or Vulpauser)
Anser Canadensis—(The Canada Goose) 6 d °
Anser Cygnoides—(The Chinese Goose) . c é c

Cygnus olor—(The Tame Swan, or Mute Swan)
Cygnus ferus—Ray. —(The Hooper, or Whistling
Cygnus musicus—Bechst. Swan) . A E

Cygnus Bewickii—(Bewick’s Swan) 5 5
Cygnus buccinator—(The Trumpeter Sw a, d 2 :

105
106
121
154
154
163

165

165

165
165

177
178
180
131

185
1S?
1&8

OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

eines

INTRODUCTION.

Tue only history of man in his primeval
condition is that contained in the book of
Genesis. The records of that book — the
truthfulness of which modern discoveries tend
more and more to confirm, (irrespective of
the claim, which its internal evidence justifies,
to the pen of inspiration,)—show us that our
primitive forefathers were far removed from
that debased condition in which we now find
the natives of Australia, or some of the
Papuan islands. They were not savages—nor
is a savage state of existence natural to man ;
it is not that to which he necessarily and at
once descended after the fall; it is not that
for which the Almighty destined his species ;
but, nevertheless, it is a state into which
tribes and people have degenerated. At the
same time, they are not without the capa-

6 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

bility of emerging from it, and taking that
station in which the fiat of God placed man
when he bade him ‘‘replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the
earth.’’ This dominion over the lower orders
of creation, which the real savage cannot be
said rightly to exercise, was not abrogated
after the fall, but appears rather to have been
put into active operation immediately ; for we
read of the skins of slain animals—probably
of those offered up in sacrifice—being made
use of for garments, and of Abel, who is ex-
pressly stated to have been a keeper of sheep,
bringing ‘‘ of the firstlings of his flock, and of
the fat thereof,’ as an offering to the Lord.
Here we have a proof of the early domestica-
tion of the sheep; and soon after we read of
Jabal, that he was “the father of such as
dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.”
We have, now, oxen and sheep recorded as
being domesticated, doubtless from a sense of
their value ; and perhaps, though no mention
is made of it, the faithful dog may have been
their guardian against the ferocious beasts of
prey. The very circumstance of man’s suc-

INTRODUCTION. 7

cessful attempt at the subjugation of animals
serviceable to his interests, and constituting
his riches, to say nothing of his commencing
artificer in brass (copper) and iron, and his
construction of musical instruments, proves
that, in the infancy of the species, he was quick
to discern, prompt to execute, skilful in opera-
tions, and anxious to extend the sphere of his
actions. Doomed to ‘‘the toil and work of
his hands, because of the ground which the
Lord had cursed,” he sat not down in savage
sloth and supineness, but, mustering his ener-
gies, both of mind and body, began his career
of improvement. After the deluge, we read
of Noah practising the arts of husbandry,
planting vines, and producing wine from the
juice of the grape, and we have some reason
to believe that he not only possessed flocks of
sheep, and herds of cattle, but even camels
and asses. Of Abraham we read that he was
rich in flocks and herds, and in silver and
gold. He had goats, also, and it is unques-
tionable that, in his day, the ass and camel
were domesticated, for these animals are enu-
merated among the riches of the Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, whom he went to visit during
a time of famine,

8 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

’ [tis not until a later period that we read
of the horse, namely, under the rule of Joseph
in Egypt, when ‘‘he gave them bread in ex-
change for horses, and for the flocks, and for
the cattle of the herds, and for the asses.”
But this notice, in conjunction with another
in Genesis xlix. 17, ‘ Dan shall be a serpent
in the way, an adder in the path, that biteth
the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall
backward,” proves that, in some districts at
least, this animal had been subjugated: and
we know that, on the departure of the Israel-
ites from Egypt, the monarch pursued them
with horsemen and chariots. Horses are sub-
sequently noticed abundantly, as are also
mules; nor need we refer our reader to the
numerous passages in which distinct mention
is made of them.

With respect to the dog, the first direct
allusion to it is in Exodus xi. 7: “ But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog,
move his tongue ;’’ and we need not say that
it was inserted by Moses in the list of unclean
animals, with directions concerning the flesh
of torn beasts, which was to be thrown to the
dogs. Swine were placed in the catalogue of
unclean animals by the Mosaic ritual, and

INTRODUCTION, 9

other nations regarded the hog not only as unfit
for food, but even as defiling the person with
whom it came in contact ; yet, from this very
prohibition of its flesh, we infer that it was
kept in a domesticated state by many tribes,
anterior to the time of Moses, though we have
no previous notice of it.

No mention of the cat * occurs in the Scrip-
tures; but with this exception,—and it need
scarcely be said, that of the llama, peculiar to
the Andes of the American continent, that
of the elephant, of the buffalo of India, and of
the rein-deer of the arctic circle—all our do-
mestic quadrupeds are noticed as being already
subdued to man’s use anterior to the time of
Moses—we may say anterior to the time of
Abraham. In this list, we do not include the ©
mule—the hybrid progeny of the ass and
mare, which was, perhaps, not known until a
somewhat later period than the remote age of
which we are speaking. In fact, the most
valuable of our quadrupeds are those which
were the first domesticated ; and of this fact,

* The Egyptians certainly had a cat, or small feline animal,
domesticated, and, as a painting in the British Museum
proves, trained to assist the fowler in catching birds. The

painting, with others, was taken from the walls of the grotto
in the western hill of Thebes.

A3

a0) OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

while its main design is to show us man’s
origin and fall, the spread of our race, and
the separation of the Israelites from other
nations as a peculiar people, the earlier por-
tion of the Old Testament clearly informs us ;
nor could this information, so interesting to
the naturalist, be gained from any other source, *
—not even from the sculptured remains of
the Egyptians.

But while our attention is called to the
domestic quadrupeds, sheep, goats, oxen, dogs,
camels, asses, and horses, at a more or less
remote period, it may appear somewhat strange
at first, that we find no distinct allusion to
any domestic creatures of the feathered race,
though at a distant date, as paintings abund-
antly prove, numbers of geese and ducks were
kept by the Egyptians, who esteemed their
flesh as food.* Perhaps the pigeon may be
excepted. We read of a turtle-dove, and
‘young pigeon” as being sacrificed by Abraham
in Gen. xv. 9, and we read in the Leyvitical law,
that, instead of a lamb, the poor were permitted
to bring as an offering ‘‘ two turtle-doves or

* Herodotus observes that the Egyptians eat quails, ducks,
and small birds, without cooking them, haying first put them
in salt.

INTRODUCTION. re

two young pigeons,’’ such as he is able to get,
whence it is not improbable that domestic
pigeons were reared at an early, though not
very remote-period, if not for food, for the ap-
pointed offerings and sacrifices ; but of this we
are by no means sure, nor unless the birds
were kept in cages, which we do not hear,
could their domestication be effected by a
nomadic people. This observation is equally
applicable to other species of the feathered
tribes. Domestic poultry necessarily require
a settled state of society, the permanent occu-
pation of dwellings, a fixed residence, a de-
finite possession of the land, an exchange of
camps and migrations in search of pasturage
for permanent villages and systematic agricul-
ture. Hence, though the Egyptians might
possess various domestic birds, coming under
the general title of poultry, and though these
might be known to the patriarchs, still, as
they were not among their possessions, and
for obvious reasons could not be, we cannot
be surprised that the Old Testament, in the
earlier books, makes no mention of them.
When, indeed, the Israelitish nation became
established, and its power consolidated, the
stronghold of Zion being won from the

12 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Jebusites, and the power of the Philistines
utterly destroyed, then we might expect to
hear of the rise of the arts of civil life, of
commerce, and of its attendant circumstances.
David established the Israclitish kingdom,
His son Solomon, who succeeded him, as-
cended the throne in peace, and immediately
began to extend commerce, to patronize
science, to build and plant, and accumulated
treasures. His own words are, “I made me
great works ; I builded me houses ; I planted
me vineyards: I made me gardens and
orchards, and I planted trees in them of all
kinds of fruits: I made me pools of water, to
water therewith the wood that bringeth forth
trees (growing plantations) : I got me servants
and maidens, and had servants born in my
house; also I had great possessions of great and
small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem
before me: I gathered me also silver and gold,
and the peculiar (precious) treasure of kings
and of the provinces : I gat me men-singers and
women-singers, and the delights of the sons
of men, as musical instruments and that of all
sorts. So I was great and increased more
than all that were before me in Jerusalem : also
my wisdom remained with me,” Eccles. ii,

INTRODUCTION. 13

4—9, Elsewhere we read of the monarch’s
acquirements in natural history, and have
yeason to believe that he wrote on the subject,
though the works are lost. We know that
he procured ivory, apes, and peacocks, by
means of the ships of Tarshish, which returned
every three years from the remote east, laden
with treasures. Other remarkable animals,
and, no doubt, beautiful plants, and other
curious productions of the distant countries
visited by the fleet, were brought for the
scientific monarch, as conducive to the esta-
blishment of a menagerie, and the ornament
of his gardens, as well as the increase of his
wealth. We have noticed the peacock, a
native of India, as one of the importations,
and a beautiful ornament it was to the court-
yards, the lawns, and gardens of the palace.
This bird, however, was known at a far earlier
period,* for it is briefly alluded to in the same
chapter (39th) of the book of Job, as that
in which the wild ass and the war-horse are so
finely depicted; but, in the time of Solomon,
it must have been tolerably abundant, and in

* Perhaps its feathers only had reached western Asia, ty
some circuitous route from India, and not the bird itself.
European naturalists were acquainted with the elegant plumes
of many birds, long before they were able to acquire specimens.

14 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

the possession of his friend Hiram, king of
Tyre, whose ‘‘shipmen that had knowledge
of the sea’? conducted the expeditions. Nor
would his great men and nobles be forgotten.
Another notice occurs in the history of Solo-
mon, (1 Kings iv. 23,) which leads us to infer,
and we think legitimately, that ordinary do-
mestic poultry, of some kind or other, was
reared by the Israelites, as it undoubtedly was
by the Egyptians, whose monarch’s daughter
Solomon had married. In the account of the
daily consumption of the palace, we read of
“ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the
pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts
and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted
fowl.” We do not mean that poultry was
kept in the city, but in the adjacent villages
and the farms, particularly those of the king
and his nobles. At a far later period, poultry
was kept even in Jerusalem. The editor of
the Pictorial Bible, referring to the expression
‘n Matthew xxvi. 74, ‘the cock crew,” says,
«To this it has been objected that there were
no cocks kept in Jerusalem, lest their habit of
turning over dunghills, where they might find
creeping things, should expose to pollution
the holy food, the peace-offerings and thank-

INTRODUCTION, 15

offerings, which were eaten in that city. It is
not disputed that such a regulation existed,
but we know that it was, on some account or
other, dispensed with or not enforced. For
Lightfoot and others have shown that cocks
were actually kept at Jerusalem as in other
places, and instance the story in the Jerusalem
Talmud of a cock which was stoned by the
sentence of the council for having killed a
little child.’ That the pigeon was now do-
mesticated, or rather reconciled to breed in
dove-cotes, there can be little doubt, but great
numbers, in a still wilder condition, tenanted
the ledges and holes in the rocks, as they
tenant the towers of old ruins, the steeples of
abbeys and churches, and the cliffs along the
coast of our island. The demand for the
young of this bird, as offerings in the temple,
was extremely great, till at length they were
publicly sold within the walls of the sacred
edifice.

The swan, and evidently the wild swan, is
mentioned in the Levitical code, among the
unclean meats; but though the Divinely di-
rected legislator must have been well ac-
quainted with the goose and duck, birds kept,
as we have said, in great abundance in Egypt,

16 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

no mention is made of them, nor know we
whether they were allowed to be eaten or not ;
it is very probable that all web-footed swim-
ming birds might be included under the term
swan, (tinshemeth,) granting that bird* to be
really intended and therefore prohibited. Both
tame geese and ducks in the present day are
rarely to be met with in Syria, or western
Asia generally. They are not in demand
among the Moslems, who rarely eat them.
With respect to those domestic birds,
originally imported from central Africa or
America, as the Guinea-fowl and turkey, we
cannot, as a matter of course, find any allusion
to them in the Scriptures; but it is some-
what strange that the pheasant, from the
borders of the Phasis and the country around
the Euxine, and so remarkable for beauty,
should not be noticed. We think, however,
that an easy explanation may be given: when
the waters of the deluge were assuaging, Noah
selected two birds by way of experiment, the
raven and the dove; the ark was left dry on
mount Ararat, probably in Armenia; we have

* Michaelis and Parkhurst think the goose is intended, others
the Hyacinthine gallinule, a beautiful bird allied to the water~
hen.

INTRODUCTION. 17

then a brief narrative of a series of important
events, extending over a period of about 327
years, and a list of generations, till we come
to the injunction laid upon Abraham to leave
his country and kindred; he passed with
Lot unto the land of Canaan, and thence into
Egypt, with flocks and herds, his property ;
thenceforth he and his descendants led a
nomadic life in Syria and Arabia, feeding
their flocks and herds, their asses and camels.
Consequently, that neither this elegant bird,*
nor any other, excepting turtle-doves and
young pigeons, common in Syria, and used as
offerings, should be alluded to in the history
of the patriarchs, may be readily accounted
for. Subsequently it might have been known
to Solomon, but of this we cannot be certain.

Thus, then, referring to the oldest authentic
records which we possess, have we endeavoured
to deduce from scattered notices, the early
condition of man on the globe, the necessity

* It is among the people who emigrated westward from Asia
Minor, that the first notice of the pheasant occurs, and this is
what might be expected. The Greeks attribute its introduction
into Greece to Jason, a hero of the fabulous period of classic
history, who undertook what is termed the Argonautic expe-
dition, and procured it in Colchis, on the banks of the Phasis,
the present Faz, or Rion. The date of the Argonautic expe-
dition is placed by Newton, B.c. 937; by Blair, B.c. 1263.

18 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

which impelled him, and the skill which aided
him to subjugate certain animals essential to
his well-being. It has been shown that there
were quadrupeds constituting to the present
moment the most valuable of civilized man’s
possessions, flocks and herds—the dog, the
ass, the horse, and the camel. We have
expressed an opinion that it was not until
tribes became stationary, cultivating the soil,
and engaging in commerce, that the domestic-
ation of any of the feathered tribes began;
and even that nomadic people, though well
aware of such domestic poultry being possessed
by the dwellers of towns, and villages, and
settled farms, could not if they wished it keep
them, from the very circumstances of their
habits,—whereas, with respect to fhe quad-
rupeds alluded to, the very opposite would be
the case.

In the creation of animals, whether quad-
rupeds or birds, expressly serviceable to man,
and so highly conducive to his prosperity, and,
at the same time, so easily subjugated or
tamed, we cannot but see the wisdom and
goodness of Divine Providence. We know
not, it is true, the means employed by man in
the infancy of society in reclaiming the original

INTRODUCTION. 19

wild stocks, but we know that it was accom-
plished, and we see that one animal after
another was added to the catalogue of his
humble subjects, while, at the same time,
empires were in their dawn, cities arose,
political power became concentrated in various
given localities; the interchange of national
productions gave impetus to improvement ;
and the finer arts of life became developed
from the rude germs of their primordial origin.
At what precise point of time, or under what
peculiar circumstances, our domestic animals
respectively yielded to man’s great mastery,
and submitted to his service, are points buried
in oblivion ; nor is it needful that they should
be minutely ascertained. We know enough
to feel that, in these conquests, of more solid
benefit than those of the sword, we are pre-
sented with important considerations in the
history of our species. And thus are we led
to the axiom with which we started, that man
began his career, not, as some philosophers
tell us, in the character of a degraded savage,
but in that of a benefactor to futurity.

In the present work, we shall confine our
observations to those of the feathered race
which come under the general name of

20 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Domestic Poultry. We shall endeavour to
treat the subject in a popular and interesting
manner, divesting scientific details of that
obscurity which, from the use of technicalities,
the general reader too frequently complains is
thrown around them.

DOMESTIC POULTRY.

Domestic poultry may be divided into three
distinct groups,—first, the Gallinaceous group,
of which the fowl, peacock, turkey, ete., are
examples ; secondly, the Columbine, or pigeon
group, of which our domestic species are
limited in number ; and thirdly, the Aquatic
group, domestic waterfowl, of which the swan,
duck, and goose are familiar examples.

In habits, manners, instincts, and structural
peculiarities, these three groups differ in very
essential particulars.

THE GALLINACEOUS GROUP.

Though many of the gallinaceous birds
perch on trees, yet, in their characteristic
habits they are birds of the ground; it is
there that they search for their food, which
consists of grains, seeds, root, especially those

THE GALLINACECUS GROUP. 21

of a bulbous nature, berries, the tender tops
of vegetables, not excluding insects, and their
larvee, worms, and the like. Their limbs are
strong and muscular, enabling them to run
with ease; the tarsi or legs are covered with
strong scales, and, in the males of many species,
are armed witha sharp horny spur. The three
anterior toes are furnished with strong claws,
the hind toe is short, its point only touching
the ground, and in some species it is wanting.
From the muscularity of the limbs and the
strength of the claws, the birds of this group
are for the most part capable of scratching up
the surface of the ground in quest of grains
or insects; many delight to throw the dust
over their plumage, and wallow in the dry
gravel or sandy earth. Swampy, humid
situations are their aversion, and a continuance
of heavy rains renders them dull and dis-
spirited. As might be inferred from the
nature of their food, the gallinaceous birds
have a stout horny beak, with a tough mem-_
brane at the base, in which the nostrils are
situated. The form of the body is plump,
stout, and broad, with an ample breast. The
powers of flight are very moderate, and in
most the wings are short, concave, and

22 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS,

rounded. In some, however, as the grouse
tribe, they are pointed; but even in these
flight is not performed without considerable
exertion, and a rapid vibration of the wings,
accompanied by a loud whirring. ‘To those who
have ‘“‘ put up”’ pheasants or coveys of partridges
this almost startling sound is familiar. J

In the gallinaceous group there is a great
tendency to the development of naked combs
and wattles, and various naked fleshy or mem-
branous caruncles about the head; the fowl
has a comb, wattles, and a naked space on the
sides of the cheeks; but in the turkey we see
the naked carunculated appendages much more
extensive.

To the present group of birds one par-
ticularity in their internal structure is a
strong muscular gizzard, lined with a tough
leathery membrane. By the action of the
two thick muscular sides of this gizzard on
each other, the seeds and grains swallowed,
(and previously macerated in the crop, and
there softened by a peculiar secretion oozing
from glandular pores,) are ground up, or
triturated, in order that their due digestion
may take place. It is a remarkable fact that
these birds are in the habit. of swallowing

THE GALLINACEOUS GROUP. 23

small pebbles, bits of gravel, and similar sub-
stances, which it would seem are essential to
their health. The definite use of these sub-
stances, which are certainly ground down by
the mill-like action of the gizzard, has been a
matter of difference among various physi-
ologists, and many experiments, with a view
to elucidate the subject, have been undertaken.
It was sufficiently proved by Spallanzani that
the digestive fluid was incapable of dissolving
grains of barley, etc., in their unbruised state,
and this he ascertained by filling small hollow
and perforated balls and tubes of metal or
glass with grain, and causing them to be
swallowed by turkeys and other fowls; when
examined, after twenty-four and forty-eight
hours, the grains were found to be unaflected
by the gastric fluid; but when he filled
similar balls and tubes with bruised grains,
and caused them to be swallowed, he found,
after a lapse of the same number of hours,
that they were more or less dissolved by the
action of the gastric juice. In other experi-
ments, he found that metallic tubes introduced
at the gizzard of common fowls and turkeys,
were bruised, crushed, and distorted, and even
that sharp-cutting instraments were broken

24 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

up into blunt fragments, without having pro-
duced the slightest injury to the gizzard. But
these experiments go rather to prove the ex-
traordinary force and grinding powers of the
gizzard, than to throw light upon the positive
use of the pebbles swallowed; which, after all,
Spallanzani thought were swallowed without
any definite object, but from mere stupidity.
Blumenbach and Dr. Bostock aver that fowls,
however well supplied with food, grow lean
without them, and to this we can bear our
own testimony. Yet the question, what is
their precise effect, remains to be answered.
Boerhaave thought it probable that they might
act as absorbents to superabundant acid;
others have regarded them as irritants or
stimulants to digestion ; and Borelli supposed
that they might really contribute some degree
of nutriment. John Hunter, in his treatise
“On the Animal Economy,” after noticing the
grinding powers of the gizzard, says, in refer-
ence to the pebbles swallowed, ‘“ We are not,
however, to conclude that stones are entirely
useless ; for if we compare the strength of the
muscles of the jaws of animals who masticate
their food, with those of birds who do not, we
shall say that the parts are well calculated for

THE GALLINACEOUS GROUP. 25

the purpose of mastication; yet we are not
thence to infer that the teeth in such jaws are
useless, even although we have proof that the
gums do the business when the teeth are gone.
If pebbles are of use, which we may reasonably
conclude they are, birds have an advantage
over animals having teeth, so far as pebbles are
always to be found, while the teeth are not re-
newed. If we constantly find in an organ, sub-
stances which can only be subservient to the
functions of that organ, should we deny their
use, although the part can do its office without
them? The stones assist in grinding down the
grain, and, by separating its parts, allow the
gastric juice to come more readily in contact
with it.”

This we believe to be the true theory,—the
pebbles assist in crushing the grain, and at the
same time prevent it from consolidating into
a thick, heavy, compacted mass, which would
take a far longer time in undergoing the
digestive process, than when separated and
intermingled with the pebbles.

The gallinaceous birds are very prolific, and
most are polygamous. The nest is, as a rule,
made upon the ground; the young are hatched
covered with down, and in a few hours are

26 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

capable of running about, and following their
parent ; they pick up their food, to which
the mother conducts them, without having to
be fed like the young of the finches and
warblers in their snug nests, till they acquire
the power of flitting about. They repose at
night huddled up beneath their parent’s wings.

The males of the species composing the
present group are extremely pugnacious, and
will often fight with each other to the death
of one of the rivals. The game-cock, the
jungle-cock, the pheasant, and the quail, are
notorious for their combative’ propensities.
The females are devoted to their broods, and
Jose all sense of personal danger in their de-
fence; a hen will fly boldly in the face of a
dog, and even the timid partridge will fight
for its young. Mr. Selby records an instance
in which a pair of partridges (for these birds
are not polygamous) attacked a crow which
had attempted to seize one of their brood;
they fought not only courageously but success-
fully, for they actually fastened upon and
held their sable adversary ; and so absorbed
were they in the strife, that they persisted in
their hold till the spectator of the combat
came to their aid, and seized upon the mis-

THE COMMON FOWL. 27

creant. Upon search, the young birds were
found concealed in the grass around the scene
of action. Of none of the gallinaceous birds
is the flesh unfit for food. That of many
is a delicacy, and at the same time highly
nutritive and easily digestible. Pheasants,
partridges, quails, and grouse need no recom-
mendation. :

THE COMMON FOWL.

The common fowl, (Gallus domesticus—
Ray.*) This valuable domestic bird, of which the
varieties are extremely numerous, is doubtless
derived from some of the wild or jungle fowls
of India, and is, perhaps, crossed by more
than one species. At what period, or by what
people the wild jungle-fowl was reclaimed and
brought to become a pensioner on the bounty
of man, we have no means of ascertaining.

* Jn the restricted genus, (Gallus) the head is ornamented in
the male, and generally in the female, with a naked comb, single
in the jungle-fowls and game domestic races, but in many do-
mestic breeds double, or spread ina rose shape. Wattles, two.
Spurs in the male. The tail consists of fourteen feathers, form-
ing two vertical planes, making what is called a folded tail. In
the male, the middle feathers are the longest, and fall over the
others in a graceful arch. In some domestic breeds, the comb is

small, and the top of the head elegantly plumed with a tuft of
feathers, :

28 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

But as the writers of antiquity speak of it as
a bird long domesticated in their days; and
extensively spread, we may justly conclude
that its subjugation ranks amongst the remote
of man’s peaceful conquests over the animal
kingdom. Its domestication was probably
first achieved in India, while, at the same time,
in Malay, another species known as_ the
Malay gigantic fowl, might have been also
subjugated, and from these points distinct
races, soon intermingling together, might have
radiated.

And here, perhaps, we may be permitted to
take a review of the wild birds or species which
may have contributed to the domestic varieties.

Ist. The Malay gigantic fowl, (Gallus
giganteus—Temminck.) This large and very
remarkable species is a native of Java and
Sumatra. The male bird in its natural atti-
tude exceeds two feet in height, measuring
from the top of the head to the ground. The
comb is thick, and low, and destitute of serra-
tions, appearing as if it had been partially
cut off, the wattles are small, and the throat
is bare. The neck is covered with elongated
feathers or hackles, of a pale golden reddish
colour, which advance upon the back, and

THE COMMON FOWL. 29

hackles of the same colour cover the rump,
and drop on each side of the base of the tail.
The middle of the back and the shoulders of
the wings are of a dark chestnut, the feathers
being of a loose texture. The greater wing
coverts are of a glossy green, and form a bar
of that colour across the wing. The primary
and secondary quill feathers are yellowish,
with a tinge of rufous. The tail feathers are
of a glossy green. The under surface uni-
formly is of a glossy blackish green, but the
base of each feather is a chestnut, and this
colour appears on the least derangement of
the plumage. The limbs are remarkably stout,
and the robust tarsi are of a yellow colour.
The voice is a sort of crow—hoarse and short,
and very different from the clear notes of de-
fiance uttered by our farmyard chanticleer.
This species has the habit, when fatigued, of
resting on the tarsi or legs, as we have seen
the emu do under similar circumstances.

In some parts of continental India, this
bird is domesticated, and is known to Euro-
peans under the name of the Kulm Cock. In
the proceedings of the Zool. Soc. for 1832,
p- 151, we find the following notice respecting
it by colonel Sykes, who observed it domesti-

30 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

eated in the Dukhun (Deccan.) ‘“‘ Gallus gi-
ganteus, Temm. ; Gall. Ind. 633: known by
the name of the Kulm Cock by Europeans in
India. Met with only as a domestic bird;
and colonel Sykes has reason to believe that
it is not a native of India, but has been intro-
duced by the Mussulmans from Sumatra or
Java. The iris of the real game-bird should
be whitish or straw yellow. Colonel Sykes
landed two cocks and a hen in England, in
June, 1831. They bore the winter well; the
hen laid freely, and has reared two broods of
chickens. The cock has not the shrill clear
pipe of the domestic bird, and his scale of
notes appears more limited. A cock in the
possession of colonel Sykes, stood twenty-six
inches high to the crown of the head; but
they attain a greater height. Length from
the tip of the bill to the insertion of the tail,
twenty-three inches. Hen, one-third smaller
than the male. Shaw very justly describes
the habit of the cock, of resting when tired
on the first joint cf the leg.”

Within the last few years, other examples
of this giant race have been brought to Eng-
land, and we believe that the breed is kept up
in the royal aviary at Windsor, The various

THE COMMON FOWL. él

specimens which we have seen, some of very
large size, had little in our eyes, stature ex-
cepted, to recommend them ;—their contour
seemed to be destitute of compactness, there
was no energy in their movements ;—the proud
strut, the spirited action, the elegant sym-
metry, the animated aspect, so conspicuous in
the high-bred game race of our country, or
some of the bold but diminutive bantam.
breeds, was wanting.

2ndly. The Javanese jungle-fowl, (Gallus
Bankiva.) This species, the Ayam-utan of
the Malays, is a native of Java; but either a
variety or a distinct species of larger size, yet
very similar in colouring, is found in conti-
nental India. The Javanese or Bankiva jun-
gle-fowl, is about the size of an ordinary
bantam, and in plumage resembles the black-
breasted red game-bird of our country, with a
steel-blue mark across the wings. ‘The comb
is high, its edge is deeply serrated, and the
wattles are rather large. The hackle feathers
of the neck and rump are long and of a glossy
golden orange ; the shoulders are chestnut red,
the greater wing-coverts deep steel-blue, the
quill-feathers brownish black, edged with pale
reddish yellow, or sandy red, ‘The tail is of a

32 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

black colour with metallic reflections of green
and blue. The under parts are black. The naked
space round the eyes, the comb, and wattles are
scarlet. The hen closely resembles a brown hen
of the game breed, except in being very much
smaller. That this bird, or its continental ally,
is one of the sources—perhaps the main source
—of our domestic race, cannot be doubted. It
inter-breeds freely with our common poultry,
and the progeny is fertile. Most beautiful
cross-breeds between the Bankiva jungle-fowl
and bantam may be seen in the gardens of ae
Zoological Society.

3dly. Sonnerat’s jungle-fowl, (Gallus Son-
neratit.) This is the common jungle-fowl of
continental India; it inhabits the woods, and
is shy and vigilant. It exceeds in size the
Bankiva jungle-fow], and in plumage and sym-
metry is very beautiful. For spirit and deter-
mination in combat it is highly celebrated,
insomuch that Mussulman natives of India,
who enter into the barbarous sport of cock
fighting with incredible eagerness, are anxious
to procure birds of this species, which they
will match against others of the ordinary game
breed, confident of the victory. It is easily
domesticated; and living specimens are gene-

THE COMMON FOWL. do

rally to be seen in the gardens of the Zoological
Society.

In this splendid species, the comb of the
male is large with its margin serrated; the
wattles are rather ample, the hackles of the
neck, and lower part of the back, and the wing
coverts on the shoulders, have the shafts ex-
panded into a thin cartilaginous, or rather
horny plate, of a bright golden yellow, with
a rich metallic gloss. These plates vary in
shape, being in some feathers angular, in
others oval, or almost circular. The plumage
on the middle of the back, the breast, and
under parts generally is a deep grey, each
feather having a paler margin. The tail is of
deep rich glossy green, with varied metallic
reflections; bill and legs yellow. The females
which have come under our notice were smaller
than the males,—of a rich brown colour,
beautifully speckled and marbled with darker
pencillings: néither comb nor wattles were very
apparent. In reference to Sonnerat’s jungle
fowl, we find the following details in the pro-
ceedings of the Zoological Society, 1832, p.151.
This bird, observes colonel Sykes, is the Rahn
Komrah of the Mahrattas. It is “ very abun-
dant in the woods of the western Ghauts, where

B

84 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

there are cither two species or two very strongly
marked varieties. In the valleys, at 2,000
feet above the sea, Sonnerat’s species is found,
slender, standing high on the legs, and with
the yellow cartilaginous spots on the feathers,
even in the female. In the belts of woods on
the sides of mountains at 4,000 feet above the
sea there is a short-legged variety; the male
has a great deal of red in his plumage, which
Sonnerat’s has not ; the female is of a reddish
brown colour, and is without cartilaginous
spots at all. In fact, the female of this variety
is the Gallus Stanleyii of Mr. Gray’s ‘‘TIllus-
trations,” eggs exactly like those of the
domestic fowl in form and colour, but less in
size. The wild hen would appear to sit ona
much smaller number of eggs than the domes-
tic, as colonel Sykes shot a hen upon her nest,
in which were only three eggs, and the process
of incubation had evidently commenced some
days.* In the craw and stomach of many
birds, nothing whatever was found excepting
the seeds of a stone-like hardness, called Job’s
tears, (Coix barbaia,) Irides brownish deep

* This might have been an accidental circumstance, anda
Single instance is no proof that the wild hen sits on fewer eggs,
or rears a less numerous progeny, than her domestic relative,

THE COMMON FOWL. 35

orange. The crow, or call of this species is
Jike that of the bantam cock.” ‘Many of
the (domestic) hens, particularly in the vil-
lages of the Ghauts, are not to be distinguished
from the wild bird (Sonnerat’s) excepting
only in the want of the cartilaginous spot on
the wing coverts.”

Captain Thomas Skinner, in his Excursions
in India, (1832,) thus notices the jungle-fowl,
(Sonnerat’s) which he met with in abundance.
‘In some parts of the forest, we saw several
jungle-fowl ; they have the same habits as the
domestic poultry ; the cock struts at the head
of his hens, and keeps a strict watch over their
safety. Whenever they were disturbed by our
attempts upon them, he flew to the highest
branch of some-tree beyond our reach, and
crowed with all his might, while his dames
ran into holes and corners to escape our
attacks; they are so cunning that we found it
impossible to get within shot of them, with all
the caution we could use.”

An amusing writer on “Sporting Scenes in
India,” (N. M. Mag., 1829, p. 234,) speaking
of the wild jungle-fowls, says that the sports-
man may be successful in his attempts, ‘‘ by
ascertaining from successive cries the way they

BQ

36 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

walk, and hurrying through the coyer by a
circuitous route, so as to intercept them; but
this requires a certain tact. ‘The slightest stir,
and often the keenness of the bird’s sight, for
they come slowly and look well around, as they
strut, and flap their wings and challenge, are
enough to discover the sportsman, when the
crowing ceases, and they are off at a hopeless
rate.’ He adds, ‘‘ these birds are the abori-
ginal cock and hen, but neither their cry nor
their plumage is that of the domestic fowl.”
The capture of these birds, and also of other
animals, is carried on by natives of a low caste,
who gain.a livelihood by this despised oceu-
pation. Johnson, in his “Sketches of Field
Sports, as followed by the natives of India,”
informs us that ‘“‘two or three of these men
go for that purpose together, and proceed in
this manner.—A line of thirty or forty yards
long is fastened to the ground with wooden
pegs at each extremity, and is then elevated
by props to the height of about eighteen
inches. ‘To this line nooses of horse hair are
fastened at distances of about two feet from
each other, and when the birds attempt to
pass under the line, they are caught in the
nooses by their necks, Sometimes a similar

THE COMMON FOWL. 37

line is fastened to the ground and left lying
there, with all the nooses spread, and as the
birds pass over them they are caught by the
legs. These lines are never spread where
there is much jungle. When the line or
lines are ready, the men go off to a considerable
distance and beat the bushes in a direction
towards them.”

We may here allude to some other species of
jungle-fowl, as the fork-tailed cock of Java,
(Gallus furcatus—Temm.) which has the throat
adorned with only a single large wattle, spring-
ing from the centre, and the bronzed cock of
Sumatra, (Gallus ceneus,) which has a large
comb, smooth along the ridge, and destitute
of serrations. Neither of these birds has true
hackles on the neck.

Another species is the fire-backed pheasant,
(Euplocamus ignitus—Temm.) This is a large
species, standing high on the legs, with full
crest on the head, and short feathers on the
neck. The tail of the cock is folded as usual,
but the first two feathers instead of being long,
slender, and bending down, .scarcely exceed
the rest, are broad, and just curved, reminding
us of the tail of a high-bred bantam-cock, of
sir John Sebright’s spangled breed. General

38 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

plumage black, with reflections of steel blue,
lower part of the back bright red, extending
thence, like a zone round the body ; the middle
tail feathers white, the rest black, with green
reflections; legs, vermilion red; female, brown.
This splendid bird is a native of Sumatra.

With respect to the last three species, we
believe that our naturalists regard them as
having contributed to the domestie fowl ;
indeed, with respect to the fire-backed pheasant,
this species represents a form distinct from
that of the true jungle-fowls, and must, theres
fore, be considered out of the question.

It is then, to the three preceding species
that we must look. That the Kulm fowl of
the Dukhun, and the gigantic Malay fowl, are
identical we believe is generally admitted, and
the breed appears to be more extensively spread
in a domestic state than is supposed. In the
proceedings of the Zoological Society, for
1835, p. 92, we have the following notice
relative to some Herat fowls presented to the
society by Keith E. Abbott, Esq.—These were
a cock and two hens of the fowls of Herat, in
Khorassaun, a breed which Mr. Abbott believes
is unknown in Europe. ‘They are young birds,
of the real Herat race. These, it was stated,

THE COMMON FOWL. 39

(at the meeting) were apparently identical with
the Kulm fowl of Dukhun, and the Malay
fowl, the Gallus giganteus—Temm.

Tiere then we have a domestic race, traceable
to an aboriginal stock; and though it is not
of general distribution, still, in all probabi-
lity, it has at some time or other crossed with
a breed from one of the smaller jungle-fowls,
and thereby contributed to the increase of
stature. That the Bankiva jungle-fowl of
Java, or its larger continental variety, if it be
not a distinct species, (and of which sir W.
Jardine states that he has seen several speci-
mens,) is one of the sources of our domestic
breeds, cannot, we think, be for a moment
doubted. It would be difficult to discover
any difference between a clean-limbed black-
breasted red bantam-cock, and a cock Bankiva
jungle-fowl. Indeed, the very term bantam
goes far to prove their specific identity: Bantam
is a town or city at the bottom of a bay onthe
northern coast of Java; it was first visited by
the Portuguese, in 1511, at which time a great
trade was carried on by the town with Arabia,
Hindostan, and China; chiefly in pepper.
Subsequently it fell into the hands of the Dutch,
and was at one time the great rendezvous for

40 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

European shipping. It is now a place of com-
parative insignificance.

From this it would seem that the jungle-
fowls domesticated and sold to the Europeans
at Bantam, continued to be designated by the
name of the place where they were obtained,
and in process of time the name was appro-
priated to all our dwarfish breeds.

Among the birds forming the collection in
the Chinese museum, exhibited for some years
at Hyde Park Corner, are specimens of the
Bankiva jungle-fowl; of the species indige-
nous in China, in a wild state, its range is
more extensive than naturalists are aware of;
it is, however, not improbable, that the speci-
mens were imported into Canton from Java, and
there sold with other specimens, some indige-
nous, others from Malacca, to the proprietor
of the museum. We are the more confirmed
in this opinion, because we find the argus
pheasant, a native of Malacca, Sumatra, etc,
in the same collection.

With respect to Sonnerat’s jungle-fowl, the
ordinary jungle-fowl of continental India,
though the traveller whose name it bears
regarded it as the stock whence our domestic
races sprung, we cannot say that such is our

THE COMMON FOWL. 4]

opinion. The laminated structure of the
hackle feathers, and those of the shoulders, is
never seen in any of our domestic breeds;
moreover, the female has the throat clothed
with feathers, and only a space round the eye
bare. Nevertheless, we will not deny that, in
some of the domestic varieties there may have
been across with this species at some period
or other, of which the distinctive marks have
gradually become obsolete.

This, then, is the sum and substance of our
knowledge respecting the wild origin of the
domestic fowl, of which various breeds are
spread over the world. Still more are we in
the dark as to the time and circumstances of
its subjugation and dispersion. We have
already advanced an opinion, from a casual
and little-noticed expression in the first Book
of Kings, that as early as the days of Solo-
mon, the domestic fowl was kept in Judea,
and that it was perhaps in a state of tame-
ness long antecedently among the Egyptians.
At a late period in Judea, the fowl, as nu-
merous allusions prove, was common. The
Saviour’s words to Peter, and the lamentation
over Jerusalem, so full of beauty and pathos,
**How often would I have gathered thy chil-

42 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

dren together, as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not!” are
passages sufficiently corroborative. A few
years, however, antecedently to the point of
time to which these passages lead us, we find
that, even in Britain, the domestic fowl was
known. How it had reached this ultima thule,
of which the Romans, previous to the inva-
sion, or we might almost say, discovery by
Julius Ceesar, were ignorant, it is difficult to
determine. We cannot think that it was
imported by the early tribes, Celtic or Belgic,
who colonized our fertile land; they were no-
madic people — warriors, scarcely knowing
whither they went; if, however, we might
hazard an opinion, it is to the Pheenicians—
the merchants of Tyre, whose vessels brought
the peacock to Solomon, and who were the
great mariners of antiquity, that we owe the
introduction of this valuable bird. A history
of that wonderful people remains yet to be
elaborated ; but that they were familiar with
our western and scuthern coasts, and also with
‘‘Erin’s green isle,” is, we believe, conceded
by all antiquarians. Another inlet to the fowl
might have been by the way of Gallia, (where,
as Ceesar informs us, three settled nations

THE COMMON FOWL. 48

dwelt, dividing the land, in his days,) and
between which country and Britain, there was
a perpetual intercourse. Be this as it may,
Ceesar notices the fowl as established in our
island, and informs that, though it was kept
for pleasure, it was forbidden by the Druids
to be used as food. The goose,* the hare,
and the fish of rivers were also among the
forbidden meats. That the Romans, during
their long domination, introduced various
breeds of fowls, and perhaps other poultry
into our island, may be easily believed;
nevertheless, the fowl and the goose were
domesticated here, on their arrival. The gems
and coins of ancient Greece prove the remote-
ness of time at which the domestic fowl was
a familiar denizen in that country. The cock
was dedicated to several of the Grecian gods,
as Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Aisculapius, etce.,
and our readers may remember that, in his
dying hour, the great Socrates—perhaps in
irony, perhaps from some feelings connected
with early associations—reminded his friends
that he owed a cock to Aisculapius. The
watchfulness, spirit, and prowess of the bird

* We have here a proof that the goose was kept domesticated
in England from a very early epoch.

44 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

were no doubt its recommendations. The
Greek names of the fowl are Alectryon,
(dXexrpuoy,) and Alectoris, (ddexropis,) but it
was also called the Persian bird, (Iepouxds dpyis,)
and Aristophanes (Birds) introduces one of
his characters as showing how the cock had
reigned in Persia before Darius and Megabyzus,
a circumstance which goes some way to prove
the westward radiation of the fowl from its
Indian cradle. Various breeds for the combat
were highly esteemed in Greece. Those of
Tanagra Delos, and Rhodes, also of Chalcis,
Media, Persia, and the neighbourhood of
Alexandria, were in high repute. The Romans,
who imitated the Greeks in so many points,
adopted, among others, the savage amusement
of cock-fighting, so consonant to the taste of
a populace whose greatest delight was in the
combats of a blood-stained arena, where men
and beasts fell in mortal strife to gratify the
lust of slaughter. But the delicacy of the
flesh of these birds was by no means over-
looked by the Romans in the days of their
luxury, when exorbitant sums were lavished
upon the pleasures of the table, and the nobles
vied with each other in the senseless extrava-
gance of their entertainments. In order to

THE COMMON FOWL. 45

improve the whiteness and delicacy of their
flesh, fowls and capons were fed in the dark
upon meal, for the gratification of the palate
of the epicure. A ‘‘barn-door chuckie,’ we
think, would have been ten times more pre-
ferable; however, on the score of fattening
and cramming, and torturing poultry, neither
we of England, nor our neighbours of France,
have a syllable to utter against the ancient
Romans. .

If in ancient Greece and Rome cock-fighting
were a favourite amusement, not less so has it
been in England. The practice was not im-
probably introduced into our island by the
Romans, when they established here their
language and their customs. Be this as it
may, it is only within this last few years that
this barbarous sport has become neglected,
and that the cockpits have been deserted.
Not that the cruel practice is quite obsolete,
for there are a few still who delight in the
mortal combat of the feathered champions,
and keep up the game breeds in their purity.
In India, China, Malacca, and the Greek
islands, this sport is carried on with the
utmost ardour. In Sumatra, indeed, it is
pursued with an excitement bordering upon

46 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

mania; and we are credibly informed, “ that
instances have occurred of a father staking his
children or wife, and a son his mother and
sisters, on the issue of a battle.”

Of the utility of the fowl as an article of
food, and of the goodness of its eggs, little
need here be said ;—all are aware of the vast
numbers of the former consumed in the metro-
polis alone; and with respect to the latter,
thousands are annually imported from France
to meet the demands of the market. In all
ages, the cock has been celebrated as the har-
binger of morn, the herald of the sun, whose
clarion sounds before the break of day.
“Watch ye, therefore,” says our Saviour, ‘‘for
ye know not when the master of the house
cometh; at even, or at midnight, or at the
cock-crowing, or in the morning.”

Though the common fowl is now widely
spread, it is not adapted for the high boreal
regions. It is not found to breed in the north-
ern parts of Siberia, and in Iceland is kept
only as a rarity. The manners of the ordinary
fowl are too well known to require comment,
—their mode of scratching the earth in quest
of insects, their fondness for dusting their
plumage, the proud strut of the cock at the

THE COMMON FOWL. 47

head of his train, his jealousy of a rival, his
attention, and the peculiar note with which
he calls the hens to partake of some choice
morsel which he has discovered or scratched
up, have been noticed again and again by all
familiar with that interesting spot, a well-
arranged farm-yard. After laying her egg, on
leaving the nest, the hen utters a loud cackling
cry, to which the cock often responds in a
high-toned kind of scream. The number of
eges laid by a single hen during the spring
and summer months, varies according to cir-
cumstances—as diet, a suitable locality, ete.,
but she can only cover in sitting from twelve
to sixteen. The chick breaks the egg on thé
twenty-first day ; in a few hours it is lively
and active.

It is not only under the natural parent, whose
patience, care, and anxiety are proverbial, that
the eggs of the fowl are capable of being
hatched. Artificial means have been and are
successfully used, both in France and in
England; and, as is well known, an establish-
ment for hatching eggs has been long main-
tained in Egypt, from which thousands of
fowls are annually distributed. The uni-
formity of the atmospheric temperature in

48 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Egypt no doubt contributes much to success ;
but in our variable climate, the Eccaleobion *
machine, invented by Mr. Bucknell, has been
found to answer most admirably. This ma-
chine resembles an oblong box nine feet in
length, three in breath, and three in height ;
it is placed on a table, and is warmed by
means of an internal apparatus capable of being
so regulated, that any degree of temperature
may be maintained, from that of the atmo-
sphere to that of 300 degrees of Fahrenheit.
It is capable of containing two thousand eggs.
Many thousand chickens have been matured
in the egg by this machine ; and could it be
brought into general use, considerable advan-
tage might result from its employment. Mr.
Bucknell, in his ‘Treatise on Artificial Incu- |
bation,” makes the following observations :—
«It must have struck even the most superficial
observer, that the extraordinary fecundity of
gallinaceous fowls is a wise and most beneyo-
lent dispensation of nature, to provide more
abundantly food for man; as in those tribes
of birds not suited to his table, the female
lays no more eggs than she can incubate.+

* ExkaXew, (eccaleo) to call forth —Bcos, (bios) life.
} This is not quite correct; the pigeon, the partridge, the

THE COMMON FOWL. 49

With respect, therefore, to domestic poultry,
the (perhaps) most nutritious of all human
food, this rich provision of bounteous Provi-
dence is for the first time available to Europe.”
That is, by means of the Eccaleobion. ‘‘ We
call the Egyptians barbarous: the procuring,
however, by art and industry, of that neces-
sary of life, good animal food, is no evidence
of barbarism. If the population of the united
kingdom, which, as respects Egypt, is as
twenty-four to two, were as well supplied with
this artificial production as Egypt, it would
require, not ninety-two millions, but one
thousand one hundred and four millions of
poultry annually, for them to be as well-fed in
this respect as the uncivilized natives of Egypt.
But how stands the account on this matter?
Full one-third of our population subsist almost
entirely, or rather starve, upon potatoes alone ;
another third have, in addition to this edible,
oaten or inferior wheaten bread, with one or
two meals of fat pork or the refuse of the
shambles, per week; while a considerable
quail, the pheasant, the grouse, etc, lay no more eggs than
they can incubate, nor does the fowl in a state of nature; yet
these birds are delicacies of the table. That the fowl should

be so constituted as to lay, while ina state of domestication,
more eggs than she can incubate, is a wise provision.

50 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

majority of the remaining third seldom are
able to procure an ample daily supply of good
butchers’ meat, or obtain the luxury of poultry
from year to year. On the continent of
Europe, the population is still in a worse con-
dition ;—fish, soups made from herbs, a stuff
called bread, made from every variety of grain,
black and brown, hard and sour, such as no
Englishman could eat,—olives, chestnuts, the
pulpy saecharine fruits; roots, stalks, and
leaves, and not unfrequently the bark of
trees ;—sawdust, blubber, train-oil, with frogs
and snails, make up and constitute a good
part of the food of the greater portion of
the inhabitants of Europe. There is no other
cause for this than the excessive ignorance
of its population.”

We think that Mr. Bucknell draws his pic-
ture alittle too strong ; and we cannot help sus-
pecting that his Eccaleobion would not prove a
panacea for the catalogue of evils he enumer-
ates, though one were kept for the wholesale
hatching of fowls in every village. In France,
M. Réaumur pursued a long and varied series
of experiments on the artificial means of hatch-
ing the eggs of poultry, the details of which
he narrates at full, but which would here

THE COMMON FOWL. 51

cecupy too much space to transcribe : suffice it
to say, that he found a room situated over,
and receiving heat from, the bread-ovens of a
benevolent institution in Paris, the tempera-
ture of which was uniform, and easily regu-
lated, to answer admirably; and there is no
doubt but that hatching-chambers might be
easily constructed on a similar principle. The
necessary temperature, to be maintained -as
equally as possible, is about 96° of Fahren-
heit. It is by a nice management of the
temperature, and by that skill which arises
from long practice, that the Egyptians, who
profess the business, are so successful. There
are people residing at the village of Berme and
a few adjoining places in the Delta; and
generation after generation they follow the
same business: they make a mystery of it,
and no one but these people are allowed to
practise it. There are in the different districts
of Egypt, about three hundred and eighty-six
egg-ovens, or mamals, each managed by a
Bermean, who is regularly licensed by the
aga of Berme, and pays ten crowns for his
certificate. Consequently, the number of ovens
and practitioners cannot be increased without
the approbation and licence of the aga. In

52 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

each of these ovens, six or eight broods are
annually hatched, and each brood consists
of from forty thousand to eighty thousand
chickens. The Bermean guarantees two-thirds
of the eggs with which he is entrusted by the
proprietor, who speculates in fowls; and if
any overplus eggs are hatched, the chickens
are the perquisite of the Bermean, who, be-
sides, receives his board, and thirty or forty
crowns for about six months’ service.

The Egyptian egg-ovens are made of brick,
and may be described as follows:—Let us
suppose a passage or gallery, about three feet
wide, and nine feet high, with a round hole
for an entrance instead of a door, running
through the centre of a low building; on each
side of this gallery are the chambers, arranged
in two rows, a lower and an upper one, all of
the same size, namely, four or five feet in
breadth, twelve or fifteen in length, and three
in height ; each of these chambers is entered
from the central gallery by means of a circular
hole, just capable of admitting a man to creep
through ; consequently there are two rows of
holes along the gallery. Each pair of rooms,
namely, the under and upper, communicate by
means of a similar hole in the centre of the

THE COMMON FOWL. 53

ceiling of the under room, which of course
forms the floor of the upper room. The use
of these two rooms is different. In the lower
room the eggs, to the number of four or five
thousand, are placed upon a bed of flax, or a
large mat, and in the upper room is placed
the fire, the heat of which communicates
through the hole to the lower room, the tem-
perature of which it duly raises. The fire-
place is a sort of gutter, about two inches deep
and six inches wide, running round two or
three sides of the floor. The material used for
burning consists of the dried dung of camels
or oxen mixed with straw, and formed into
compact cakes. These burn slowly, and the
heat produced is easily controlled. The smoke
escapes through the round entrance hole into
the gallery, and thence through openings in
the arched top of the gallery itself. The fire
is not always kept burning, but only for an
hour night and morning, and if the tempera-
ture require, perhaps for an hour in the day
besides. When the smoke from the fires of
the several upper rooms has passed away, all
the round openings into the gallery are stuffed
up with bundles of coarse tow, which
effectually confines the heat, far more so than

54 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

a wooden door would. According to the
weather, this routine is kept up for eight, ten,
or twelve days; the fires are then altogether
discontinued, the heat retained in the ovens
being sufficient to maintain the necessary
temperature. As the time of hatching draws
nigh, a number of the eggs are now removed
from the lower tier of rooms, and put into the
upper rooms, and all are more spread out, to
allow the unimpeded exit of the chickens from
the shell, which takes place on the twenty-first
day ; and which, if the eggs were all huddled
together, would be attended with some diffi-
culty. Thus, without a thermometer to appeal
to, and trusting to his own sensations as a
guide in the regulation of temperature, and to
tact, the result of experience, for management,
does the Bermean successfully exercise his art,
which has descended in Egypt from times of
antiquity, surviving every change. That such
a plan would succeed in our humid, changeable
climate is, indeed, very problematical, nor is it
ever likely to be attempted.

All birds require, while young, the mother’s
care; and though the true gallinaceous birds
feed themselves in the course of a few hours
after exclusion from the egg, still they need

THE COMMON FOWL. 55

from time to time her fostering warmth, and
huddle together under the shelter of her wings.
Réaumur, while pursuing his experiments
on the artificial hatching of eggs, found it
necessary to have recourse to some means of
supplying the deficiency in this respect, and
thereby atone for the want of maternal care.
While crouching under the hen, the backs of
the chickens are necessarily more warmed than
the under parts; and he found, by experience,
that in his contrivances, this principle must
be always kept in view, and after several trials
adopted a sort of box lined with sheep-skin,
dressed with the wool on it. The top of this
box sloped like a writing desk, and it was
attached to, or rather inclosed within, a sort
of large cage made of willow-grating, or net
work, in which the chickens fed and played.
At both ends, the box was open, allowing the
chickens to enter, and its sloping top rendered
it commodious for chickens of different sizes,
In this simple apparatus, which Réaumur
designated an artificial mother, the chickens
slept at night; and they often resorted to it
during the day, and as the smallest could
easily escape at the lowest end, they were in
no danger of being squeezed or crushed by

56 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

their larger companions. On this apparatus
Réaumur afterwards made several improve-
ments, with a view to convenience, and the
safety of the young brood. Another appara-
tus consisted of a stove inclosed with netting
for safety, surrounded by a sort of covered run,
into which the brood could enter for warmth.
The warmth of the stove served also to hatch
fresh broods, the eggs being ranged over it.*

To the apparatus intended for young ducks
or geese an additional compartment of turf
sloping to a small pond was requisite.

In our island} many different breeds of
fowls are distinguished, prized by amateurs,
and several counties have been long celebrated
for the size and excellency of their poultry ;
as for example, Sussex and Surrey. The
Sussex fowls are of large size and fine flavour,
but inclined to be long in the body. The
breed around Dorking, in Surrey, is of great
antiquity, and supposed by some to have been
introduced by the Romans. A pure Dorking

* Some breeders of fowls in England use artificial mothers
for their brood hatched in the natural way, and they may be
resorted to very advantageously when any accident has happened
to the hen.

+ France has, in the peninsula of Caux, a peculiar and valued
breed of fowls, which are fattened in the environs of Barbézieux
La Fléche, and especially Mans, for the table.

THE COMMON FOWL. 57

fowl is of large size, and rounded contour ;
and furnished with one or more additional but
imperfect toes; the legs are short, and the
plumage white. The breed has been of late
years much crossed with the ordinary dung-
hill fowl, and with the Sussex race, without
any deterioration. The flesh is remarkable
for whiteness, and delicacy of flavour. Vast
numbers of these fowls are regularly sent to
the London markets.

A breed of fowls often seen around London
is termed the Spanish. These fowls are of a
very large size, and the hens lay enormous
eggs, but do not sit well. The plumage is
black, the comb large, and often pendulous,
and the naked skin behind the ears white.
There is also a black Poland or Hamburg
breed, with a large top-knot of long white
feathers. Two breeds remarkable for beauty
of plumage, are the gold-spangled and silver-
spangled Polands. These have small combs
on the forehead, and a full top-knot of feathers
on the crown. Fine fowls of these breeds are
highly valued.

From Persia, it would appear, is derived
the rumpless or Persian breed, in which not
only are the tail-feathers wanting, but the tail

58 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

itself. Fowls of this breed lay well, but are
not pleasing in appearance. Another breed,
known as the Friesland, is remarkable, from
having all the feathers frizzled or curled up
the wrong way. The appearance of these
fowls is very unsightly. This breed occurs
not only in Europe, but in the Deccan, and in
Java and Sumatra. From Japan and China
has been obtained the silk-fowl, so called from
its plumage, which is white, being all discom-
posed and loose, and of a silky appearance.
The comb and wattles are purple, and the
periosteum, or membrane covering the bones,
is black.

There is also another breed from India, of
which we have seen several examples in which
the plumage is as usual, but the comb, wattles,
and skin, are of a dull purple-blue, and the
periosteum black. ‘This variety is the Gallus
Morio of Temminck, and has been supposed,
but on no good grounds, to be a distinct spe-
cies. The flesh of this fowl, notwithstanding
the colour of the skin and bones, is white and
delicate.

No breed is so handsome as the true game
race. The plumage is brilliant, the figure
admirable, and the gait stately. The flesh is

THE COMMON FOWL. 59

delicately white, and of the finest flavour.
The pugnacity of these fowls is very great,
rendering it troublesome to rear them, and we
have more than once known a whole brood of
young game chickens more or less injured,
and some killed on the spot, from fighting
among themselves.

Of the bantam breeds, one is game, and
resembles the game fowl, excepting in size;
another breed is feathered to the very toes,
the feathers on the tarsi, or beam of the leg,
being long and stiff, and often brushing the
ground.

A bantam breed with clean legs, and of
most elegantly spangled plumage, has been
brought to perfection by sir John Sebright.
The attitude of the cock is singularly bold and
proud, the head being often thrown so much
back as to meet the tail-feathers, which are
simple, like those of a hen, the ordinary sickle-
like feathers being abbreviated and broad.
This elegant little breed is in great request.

Such are the principal varieties of the com-
mon fowls to be observed in our island. They
owe their origin to the breeder’s skill, and, to
be kept up in perfection, requires care, and
judgment,

60 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Fowls are casily kept ; even in some of the
streets of London we see them, but they are
miserable and dirty, and roost at night, for
the most part, in cellars, into which they de-
scend on the approach of evening, accustomed,
by use, to seek an underground asylum. We
have often pitied the poor birds, whose dirty
ragged plumage, dull eyes, and colourless
combs, bespeak the want of air, and of proper
food, and the evils of damp, and of muddy
puddles. How different from the tenants of
the farm-yard, with fields and green lanes
around,—with pure air to breathe, plenty of
good food, and clear water to drink! Where
a farm-yard dees not offer its advantages, a
poultry-yard is a good substitute. This should
be commodious and dry, and so sloping that
no water lodges after rain, forming unwhole--
some puddles. It should have a warm aspect,
and be sheltered from the cold winds. Ashes
or sand should be stored in one corner for the
fowls to roll in and clear their feathers from
annoying vermin. If possible, they should
have access to a fresh running streamlet, but
pure clear water is indispensable. A dry com-
mon or fields, in which they may freely wander
and pick up grubs, insects, ants’ eggs, and the

THE COMMON FOWL. 61

leaves of plants, of which they are very fond,
is a great advantage. From these excursions,
so productive of health, they may be accus-
tomed to return at a call. Poultry require a
liberal supply of grain, and the best and
heaviest corn is cheaper in the end than that
of inferior quality: on this depend their size,
the goodness and sapidity of their flesh, and the
richness of the eggs. In Surrey, barley is the
usual grain given, excepting during the time of
incubation, when the sitting hens have oats, as
being less heating to the system than theformer.

With respect to the fowl-house, it should
be dry and airy, but at the same time warm
and well secured from weasels or rats, or from
the incursions of the cat or fox. The perches
~ should be conveniently arranged, quite hori-
zontal, and of a thickness sufficient for the
birds to clasp firmly. For laying-chambers,
wooden boxes, with an entrance sufficient to
admit the hen easily, and a ledge before it, are
very convenient ; these should be ranged round
the wall, at about three feet from the ground.
Some use wicker baskets fastened to the wall
at a convenient height. Wheaten, or rye,
or oaten straw should form the nest, never
hay, which is too hot, and favourable besides

62 OUR DOMFSTIC FOWLS.

for the increase of vermin. The boxes or
baskets in which the hens incubate should be
as secluded as possible, and free from intrusion.
The number of eggs may vary from twelve to
sixteen, but should never exceed the latter;
they should not be stirred, except by the
hen, and more especially when incubation
has proceeded for some time, lest the position
of the chick be interfered with, for if taken
up a little time before the exit of the chick,
and incautiously replaced with the large end
lowermost, the chick from its position will not
be able to chip the shell, and must, therefore,
perish. The forepart of the chick, be it
observed, is towards the biggest end of the
eggs, and it is so placed in the shell that the
beak is always uppermost. Yet doubled up
as the chick is in its close prison, it is enabled
by its efforts to break the shell at the appointed
time, and to this end its yet soft beak is fur-
nished just above the point of the upper man-
dible with a small, hard, horny scale,* which,
from the position of the head, as Mr. Yarrell
observes, is brought in contact with the
inner surface of the shell. The position of

* This little horny scale in the course of a short time peels
off, but may be always seen on the beaks of newly-hatched
chickens,

THE COMMON FOWL. 63

the bill peeping from under the wing remaining
unaltered, the shell (greatly thinned and
weakened by absorption during incubation, )
is at length broken in one spot; this done,
the impatient chick turns gradually, almost or
entirely completing a revolution, the bill con-
tinuing to extend the fracture, which takes
place circularly round the large end, about two
thirds distant from the extremity of the small
end. Sometimes before the fracture is fully
complete the chick is enabled to make its exit,
completing the fracture by its endeavours to
push through. The length of time required
for this process varies from an hour to six,
and sometimes to twenty-four. In some in-
stances, when the chick is weak and is unable
to complete the fracture of the shell, or when
the body sticking to the shell prevents it from
accomplishing its circular revolution, the chick
must be cautiously extricated. After gradually
chipping the shell, the portions glued by the
hardened white or albumen to the chick, if
such there be, must be removed by means of
a pair of delicate scissors.

‘When the chick,” says Réaumur, ‘‘is en-
tirely or almost out of the shell, it draws its
head from under its wing, where it had hitherto

64. OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

been placed, stretches out its neck, directing it
forwards, but for several minutes is unable to
raise it. On seeing for the first time a chick
in this condition we are led to infer that its
strength is exhausted, and that it is ready to
expire; but in most cases it recruits rapidly,
its organs acquire strength, and in a very short
time it appears quite another creature. After
having dragged itself on its legs a little while,
it becomes capable of standing on them, and
of lifting up its neck, and bending it in
various directions, and at length of holding up
its head. At this period the feathers are
merely fine down, but as they are wet with
the fluid of the egg the chick appears almost
naked. From the multitude of their branch-
lets, these down feathers resemble minute
shrubs; when, however, these branchlets are
wet and sticking to each other, they take up
but very little room ; as they dry they become
disentangled and separated. The branchlets,
plumules, or beards of each feather are at first
inclosed in a membranous tube, by which they
are pressed and kept close together, but as
socn as this dries it splits asunder, an effect
assisted also by the elasticity of the plumules
themselves, which causes them to recede and

THE COMMON FOWL. bd

spread themselves out. This being accom-
plished, each down feather extends over a con-
siderable space, and when they all become
dry and straight, the chick appears completely
clothed in a warm vestment of soft down.”

It is usual as the chicks in turn make
their exit from the egg to remove them, and
keep them warmly covered up, till all are ex-
cluded and the hen is ready to take them
under her charge altogether. Within twenty-
four hours they begin to pick, and should be
supplied with crumbs of bread, soaked in milk,
egg boiled hard and chopped small, grits, and
other grain. It is desirable to keep the
chickens for the first week or ten days with
the hen under cover, in some convenient
place, so that the former may not be exposed
to wet or to sudden changes of temperature,
to which in the spring more especially they
will be liable, and when during a_ sunny
morning they are allowed to run about, the
hen should be secured under a wicker coop,
lest she should wander abroad, followed by
her brood, to their risk, from various causes,
The clucking note by which the hen calls her

brood around her, and her fearlessness and
- self-devotion in their defence, are universally

c

66 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

known. Chickens hatched in the spring or
summer begin to lay eggs early in the following
spring ; if, however, pullets hatched early in
March be plentifully fed, they will sometimes
lay eggs’ in the autumn of the same year.

Of the excellency of the flesh of the fowl
nothing need be said; it is not always, how-
ever, that a young well-fed barn-door fowl is
to be obtained, for the usual plan of the poul-
terer is to fatten the birds for the market ;
this practice if carried to a moderate extent is
not objectionable, but they are often fed
largely upon grease, and even crammed, by -
which means they become loaded with rank
and disagreeable fat, to the deterioration of
the flavour of the flesh.*

In France, the practice of cramming fowls
is very common. ‘The poor victims are mer-
cilessly treated, they are kept in a dark place,
or even deprived of sight, and closely impri-
soned in one attitude, their heads, wings, and
under parts are plucked, and at stated times
food, by means of a sort of force-pump, is
crammed down their throats, an assistant

* A well-fatted capon will often weigh seven or eight pounds,
and sometimes nine or even ten. In France, capons are taught
not ouly to hatch eggs, but to rear and watch over the chickens,
and it is said they make excellent nurses,

THE COMMON FOWL. 67

holding the beak open, while the operator
introduces the tube into the throat. Nor is
this the only barbarity to which fowls on the
Continent are subjected, sometimes even in
England. But we shall not enter into details
of cruelty.

Fowls are subject to various diseases, most
of them arising from damp, cold, and improper
food. Severe catarrhal affections, swelled
heads, dropsy of the limbs, rheumatism, or
the pip, or thrush, are among the number.
The latter is to be cured by washing the tongue
and mouth with borax dissolved in tincture of
myrrh and water.

There is one disease called the gapes, to
which domestic poultry, and also pheasants
and partridges, are subject, and which often
causes great mortality. Perhaps in the first
instance it arises from a cold or a croupy or
catarrhal affection, but in every case several
parasitic worms of a singular form and structure
will be found lodged in the windpipe, the
removal of which (and it can be sometimes
done by means of a feather introduced into the
windpipe and turned round,) is requisite to
save the sufferer. It may be that these worms
are the sole cause of the disease. One mode

2

a

68 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

of destroying these worms is by putting the
birds in a box, and making them inhale the
fumes of tobacco, blown into the box through
the stalk of a tobacco-pipe. A pinch of salt
put as far back into the mouth as possible, is
also said to be effectual. The worm in ques-
tion is the Syngamus trachealis, or Distoma
lineare. It consists of a long and a short body
united together; the long body is the female,
the short body the male; each, were it not
that they are permanently united together,
being a truly distinct individual. How these
noxious parasites become introduced into the
trachea of gallinaceous birds is a mystery. But
such is the fact. The fowl will breed, as is
well known, with the pheasant, but the hybrid
progeny is destitute of beauty, and not worth
attention.

Hens are frequently to be seen which have
assumed the plumage and spurs of the cock,
and which imitate, though badly, his full-
toned crow. In these cases the power of pro-
ducing eggs is invariably lost, from internal
disease, as has been fully demonstrated by
Mr. Yarrell.—See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1831,
p. 22, and Phil. Trans. 1827.

There are instances on record of poultry

THE PEA-FOWL. 69

becoming white from sudden fear. In the
Proc. Zool. Soc., 1835, p. 54, is the following
note, extracted by sir Robert Heron, Bart.,
from his journal. ‘1821-2. A black Poland
cock belonging to my friend and neighbour,
Mr. Kendall, of Barnsley, was seized last
winter, near the house, by a fox, but his
screams being heard by the servants, he was
rescued, desperately wounded, with the loss of
half his feathers. In time the remainder of
his feathers came off, and he is now become
perfectly white. This seems to have some
relation to the human hair becoming white
at once from fear.”

THE PEA-FOWL.

The pea-fowl (Pavo cristatus) is a native of
India, Ceylon, etc., inhabiting the dense
forests, where it perches on the highest trees
often above the range of gun-shot ; and the
sportsman frequently hears its shrill, harsh,
and startling cry, while the bird remains in-
visible, or launching itself into the air, floats
in majestic buoyancy hopelessly high above
his head. When on the ground, the pea-fowl
keeps much amidst thick jungle, and if sud-

70 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

denly surprised, is out of sight in a moment.
Besides man, many are the enemies of this
beautiful bird, among which, the tiger, the
leopard, and others of the feline race, are to be
enumerated. In Ceylon, the natives assert
that it often falls a prey to the slender loris,
(Joris gracilis) a small nocturnal animal of the
Lemurine family, of arboreal habits. While
the pea-fowl sleeps on its perch, its insidious
foe creeps slowly and noiselessly towards it,
and suddenly seizes it by the neck, which it
clutches with such tenacity that the bird,
fluttering in the agony of strangulation, drops
from its perch to the ground, with its foe still
clinging. Here it soon expires, and the loris
devours its brains, leaving the rest of the body
untouched. Colonel Sykes states that “the
wild pea-fowl is abundant in the dense woods
of the Ghauts: it is readily domesticated,
and many Hindoo temples inthe Dukhun have
considerable flocks of them. On a comparison
with the bird domesticated in Europe, the
latter is found both male and female to be
absolutely identical with the wild bird of
India.” In the passes of the Jungletery,
colonel Williamson found these birds in great
numbers, and the woods were strewed with

THE PEA-FOWL. 71

their beautiful plumes, and on one occasion
he saw twelve or fifteen hundred together,
feeding upon the bloom of mustard, cultivated
in patches, and which attracted them. He
states that when numbers are thus collected
in the jungle it is not easy to get a shot at
them, as they run extremely fast, and even a
dog can scarcely make them take wing.

It is evident that the pea-fowl was do-

mesticated at a very early period, for as we
have previously observed, it was brought over
for Solomon, and, doubtless, constituted one
of the ornaments of his pleasure gardens.
It was introduced into ancient Greece at a
date far anterior to the time of Aristotle, who
speaks of it as being familiarly known, and
it is mentioned by Aristophanes.
. The Romans were well acquainted with this
gorgeous bird, the bird of Juno, as the poets
called it, feigning that with the eyes of Argos
she adorned its tail and thus bestudded it
with gems—‘‘et gemmis caudam stellantibus
implet.””

The beauty of the peacock, however, did
not insure its safety; numbers were killed to
swell the luxurious entertainments of the
wealthy, insomuch that one of the poets said,

72 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Miraris quolies gemmantes explicat alas,
Et potes hunc sevo tradere, dure ccquo.”

You are filled with admiration as often as it unfolds its gemmed
plumes ;
And can you, hard-hearted, deliver this to the merciless cook ?

The pea-fowl figured in the feasts of Hor-
jtensius and other sensualists ; but how lavishly
‘must it have been slaughtered for the emperor
Vetellius, one of whose favourite dishes, called
the buckler of Minerva, was prepared with
the livers of scare,* the tongues of flamingoes,
and the brains of peacocks. It is very
probable that we owe the introduction of
the pea-fowl into our island to the Romans.
Its name in Saxon pawa, in Belgic pauw,
in Teutonic pfaw, and in French paon, are
evidently mere corruptions of the Latin pavo
(pronounced most likely pawo) itself a cor-
ruption of the Greek raov (tadn). Like the

* A fish, scarus creticus. ‘‘ The Archipelago (between Greece
and Asia Minor) says Cuvier, possesses a species (of scarus)
of a blue or red colour according to the season. It is the
scarus creticus of Aldrovandus, and after fresh researches
appears to me to be the true scarus so celebrated among the
ancients, and which under the reign of Claudius, Elipertius
Optatus, commander of a Roman fleet, went to procure in
Greece, in order to naturalize it in seas of Italy. It is eaten at
the present time in Greece, its intestines being seasoned.”

THE PEA-FOWL. 73

Romans, our rude forefathers highly esteemed
the peacock as a delicacy of the table; after
being dressed, it was served up with the
plumes attached and expanded, and thus
swelled the pomp of the entertainment. Before
the peacock and the ladies did the knight in
the olden time utter his solemn vow.

The flesh of the young pea-fowl is still held
in estimation, but that of old birds is tough
and dry.

The habits of the pea-fowl in a state of
domestication are well known; it is fond of
wandering about, and is unfitted for the ordi-
nary poultry yard; it delights to roam over
extensive lawns, and about parks, and shrub-
beries, walking along with stately steps, its
long plumes sweeping gracefully and con-
stituting a train of inimitable splendour.
Often it stops, and raising up its train expands
its radiant colours to the sun, and looks
proudly around, as if conscious of superlative
beauty. Who has not gazed with admiration
on the spectacle thus presented? who, con-
templating the bird thus adorned by the great
Creator, as if to delight the eyes of man, has
not been ready to exclaim, surely no monarch

c3

94 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

on his throne was ever so gorgeously arrayed,
not even ‘‘ Solomon in all his glory.”

Many persons regard the long plumes of
the peacock as its tail, and in common lan-
guage it is said “to spread its tail”’ This,
however, is incorrect ; the true tail, which con-
sists of short stiff feathers of a rusty colour,
is underneath these plumes, and serves to sup-
port them: it may be seen when the plumes
are expanded. The plumes are really the
tail coverts, and arise from the lower part of
the back, where the skin is furnished with a
strong muscular expansion in order to raise
them at pleasure. The structure of these
plumes and the ever-varying colours of the
loose barbs that fringe them, have been often
admired: the shaft is slender, tapering, and
elastic, and is fringed on each side with long
loose silky barbs, of metallic irridescence, glit-
tering now green, now golden, as the lhght
falls at different angles upon them. The
shaft is terminated by an ocellated disc, a
centre of purple, deep and intense, is en-
circled by rich emerald green, around which
runs a broad expanse of gleaming bronze,
with a narrow margin of golden green, the
whole being fringed with waving threads of

THE PEA-FOWL. 75

varying hues, purple, or green, or bronze.
But who can copy these glittering tints, this
ever-varying effulgence? Art shrinks from
the attempt. The female or pea-hen is desti-
tute of these exquisite plumes, and is far
inferior in beauty to the male; like him, how-
ever, she has an aigrette on the top of the
head composed of twenty-four feathers: these
resemble in miniature the feathers of the train,
but are less brilliant. The male is furnished
with spurs, and will sometimes use them with
severity. We knew a gentleman who, when
young, had his lip cut open by a blow from
an angry peacock.

Though these birds roost on the highest
branches of tall trees, and are fond of perch-
ing on elevated sites, still the female incu-
bates on the ground; the chosen spot being
concealed amidst bushes and jungles. The
nest consists merely of a few sticks and
twigs put together with dried leaves. The
eges are from five or six to ten in number.
The female sits assiduously, but the male, in-
fluenced by a strange antipathy, will break
the eggs if he can discover them. It is, there-
fore, necessary in the case of the domesticated
birds to prevent the possibility of any inter-

76 OUK DOMESTIC FOWLS.

ference on the part of the male with the
female during incubation.

Sir Robert Heron, Bart., in his notes, (Proc.
Zool. Soc. 1835, p. 54,) says, “ For a good
many years I have attended to the habits of
pea-fowl, and for the last eleven years have
written down my observations. I find the
individuals to differ as much in temper as
human beings: some are willing to take care
of the young ones of others, whilst some have
pursued and killed them, and this whether
they had a brood of their own or not. Some
cocks have assisted in the care of young ones,
whilst others have attacked them. An early
hen frequently has a brood herself the next
year. Age makes no difference in the number
of the brood. Ihave had six from a hena
year old, and one from an old hen.” Sir
Robert Heron also adverts to the decided par-
tiality shown by the pea-fowl towards some
particular individual, and their neglect of
others, as well as the court paid by the hens
to the males.

The peacock is not completely matured and
in full dress till the third year. The food of
these birds consists of grain of various kinds ;
the leayes and buds of vegetables; insects and

THE PEA-FOWL. Vt

their larvee, slugs, worms, and even lizards and
small snakes. The voice of the peacock is a
loud dissonant scream, and a frequent reitera-
tion of this wild cry is said to indicate with
certainty a change of weather; but we cannot
say that we have observed the fact ourselves.

As in the case of the fowl and the pheasant,
instances are not unfrequent in which the
female assumes the male plumage, and even
acquires his spurs. The causes which operate
in producing this change we have briefly
noticed in the previous article.

Long domestication has produced less variety
in the colour of the plumage of the pea-fowl,
than in the ordinary domestic fowl. We have
seen some white peacocks, and others more or
less pied with white; there is also a japanned
breed, of which sir R. Heron speaks as follows:
“The japanned breed are, I believe, a variety
originating in England. In lord Brownlow’s
numerous breed of common, white, and pied,
the japanned suddenly in my memory appeared
amongst them. ‘The same thing happened in
sir J. Trevelyan’s flock of entirely the common
sort; also in a breed of common and pied
given by lady Chatham to Mr. Thoroton, and
in both cases to the extinction of the previously

78 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

existing breed.” Of this japanned breed, we
have seen no specimens, nor are we sure as to
the colour assumed.

In all countries, the peacock is valued for its
beauty. ‘ Peacocks,” says a writer, “are great
favourites in Persia, and are more common
than in this country as an ornament in grounds
and gardens. The king of Persia has a throne
which is called the throne of the peacock, on
account of two artificial birds, intended to
represent peacocks, which are placed on square
pillars on each side of the seat. These birds
are studded with precious stones, and each of
them holds a large ruby in his beak.” In
China, beautiful fire-screens, and other orna-
mental articles are made of peacock’s feathers,
tastefully arranged, and mounted on ivory
handles.

Besides the common peacock, which is too
well known to need a detailed description,
there is a second species seldom brought alive to
England, called the Javanese, or Japan peacock.
(Pavo Japonicus—Aldr. ; Pavo muticus—
Linn. ; Pavo Javanicus—Horsf.) This species
is a native of Japan, the Birman Empire, Java,
and Sumatra. Living specimens have existed
in the gardens of the Zoological Society, and

THE PEA-FOWL. 79

were brought from the Birman territory. This
species equals the former in size, and is almost
equally, if not quite as beautiful. The first
information we have respecting this species, is
that given by Aldrovandus, (1599,) who, how-
ever, had never seen the bird, but only two
drawings sent by the emperor of Japan to the
pope. Subsequently nothing farther was heard
about it, till Shaw described it in his Zoological
Miscellany, from a figure taken from an Indian
drawing sent to England by a friend. M.
Temminck in the year 1813, in the second
volume of his work on Gallinaceous Birds, gave
a sketch of the head, with a description, taken
by Le Vaillant from a living individual seen by
him at the Cape of Good Hope, whither it had
been sent from Macao. More recently the bird
has been described by Dr. Horsefield, who
found it in Java; while sir Stamford Raffles
observed it in Sumatra. Specimens are in the
British Museum.

The prevailing tints in this species are blue
and green, varying in intensity and mutually
changing into each other, according as the
light falls more or less directly upon them.
The crest is twice as long as in the common
species, and the feathers of which it is com-

80 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

posed, are regularly barbed from the base
upwards in the adult bird, and of equal breadth
throughout. Head and crest interchangeably
blue and green, a naked space on the cheeks, in-
cluding the eyes and ears, is coloured of a light
yellow behind, and of a bluish-green towards its
fore part. The feathers of the neck and breast,
which are broad, short, rounded, and imbricated
like the scales of a fish, (very different to those
in the other species,) are at the base of the
same brilliant hue as the head, and have a
broad, lighter, and somewhat metallic margin.
Those of the back have still more of the metallic
lustre. The wing-coverts are of the general
hue, with a deeper tinge of blue; the primary
quill feathers are light chestnut. The tail
feathers and their coverts, namely the train,
are of a splendid metallic brown, changing
into green. The latter are terminated by
ocellated spots similar to those of the common
peacock. Iris deep hazel; in the common
species it is of an intense red. The female has a
plain dress, closely resembling that of the com-
mon pea-hen; but the crest is different. (See
Gardens and Menagerie of Zoological Society.)

Whether this species is gregarious like the
common pea-fowl, or more solitary in its habits,

THE TURKEY. . 8&1

we have yet to learn, nothing, indeed, is
known respecting its manners in a state of
nature, nor does it seem to be very abundant.
Preserved specimens are in the British
Museum, and in the museum of the Zoological
Society.

——

THE TURKEY.

The turkey (Meleagris Gallopavo) is origin-
ally a native of America. The term meleagris,
applied by modern zoologists to this bird, was
given by the ancients to quite a different
species, namely the guinea-fowl. According
to Grecian fable, the sisters of Meleager mourn-
ing the death of their brother, were transformed
into these birds, the plumage of which is
covered with white spots, the showers of their
tears. The application of the title meleagris
to the turkey, arose from the obscurity in
which it was enveloped when it first made its
appearance in Europe, and the very names of
Turkey, Coq d’Inde, Gallo d’ India, and Indian-
ische Hahn, prove the ignorance which pre-
vailed respecting it. The history of the turkey,
indeed, as it respects its introduction into
Europe, is almost a blank. When, or by whom

82 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

“it was brought, we do not know: most proba-
bly Spain first received it in the beginning of
the sixteenth century from her new world
colonies, and most likely it had been leng
antecedently domesticated in Mexico. Certain
it is that Oviedo, in his Natural History of the
Indies, (for so were the intertropical parts of
America then called,) published at Toledo in
the year 1526, describes the turkey as a kind
of peacock, abounding in New Spain, whence
numbers had been transported to the islands
and the Spanish Main, and domesticated in
the houses of the Christian inhabitants. Yet
even in 1524, during the reign of Henry vitr.,
was the turkey known in England. There is
an old distich which runs as follows :—

“Turkies, Carps, Hops, Pickerell, and Beer,
Came into England all in one year.”

It was about the year 1524 that hops, or
the Humulus lupulus, were introduced into
England from Flanders, and at the same time
came in the turkey. In other respects the
couplet is erroneous. Mr. Yarrell, who, in
his history of the carp, notices these lines,
says, “ Pike, or Pickerell, were the subjects of
legal regulations in the reign of Edward 1,
Carp are mentioned in the Book of St. Albans,

THE TURKEY. 838

printed in 1496. Turkeys and hops were
unknown till 1524, previous to which worm-
wood and other bitter plants were used to pre-
serve beer; and the parliament in 1528, peti-
tioned against hops as a wicked weed. Beer
was licensed for exportation by Henry vu. in
1492, and an excise on beer existed as early
as 1284, and also in the reign of Edward 1.”
Difficult as it is to rear broods of turkeys in

our country, they appear to have greatly mul-
tiplied soon after their introduction, for in
1541, we find them enumerated among the
delicacies of the table. Archbishop Cranmer
(Leland’s ‘Collectanea’) ordered that of cranes,
swans, and turkey-cocks, there should be at
festivals only one dish ; and in 1573, Tusser, in
his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,
enumerates these birds as gracing the farmer’s
table at Christmas. In the present day the
turkey, in a state of domestication, is very
widely spread. In India it is reared, according
to colonel Sykes, in great numbers by the
Portuguese. It has not, we believe, extended
to Persia. There is a humorous story told in
the Sketches of Persia, that these birds are at
least not generally known there. It appears
that two English gentlemen, on their arrival”

84 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLs.

at the town of Kazeroon, on their way to
Shiraz, heard a strange account of two re-
markable creatures that were to be seen at a
village fifteen miles distant. In answer to the
questions which their curiosity prompted them
to put, one old man said—They are very like
birds, for they have feathers and two legs, and
one of them has a long black beard on the
breast. But the chief point on which they
dwelt was the strangeness of their voice, so
unlike that of any other bird they had ever
heard. An old man who had gone all the
way from Kazeroon to see them, said that the
sound was very much like that of the Arabic
language, but, nevertheless, he added, though
he had listened to them with the greatest
attention, he had not been able to understand
a word they said. At great inconvenience,
and with no little fatigue from the badness of
the roads, the two Englishmen, excited by
curiosity, gained the village: they were taken
to the place where these strange creatures
were kept, the door was unlocked, and, lo!
out marched a turkey-cock and his mate.
The former rejoicing in his freedom began to
strut about, and gobble his Arabic, with
great vociferation. When informed. by the

THE TURKEY. 85

gentlemen, whose laughter was irrepressible,
that these birds were common in India and
England, the people were greatly surprised.
The birds, it appeared, had escaped from a
vessel which had been wrecked in the gulf
of Persia, and had gradually made their way
, up the country.

We will not attempt to describe the turkey,
for no one is unacquainted with its charac-
teristics. It is certainly one of the ornaments
of the farm-yard; the adult male in particular
is a noble bird, and shows to great advantage,
when with haughty port and expanded tail he
struts about, uttering his guttural “ Arabic.”
The carunculated skin of the head and neck
changes from pale flesh colour to purple, and
from purple to crimson, and ever and anon
a smart jar with the wings as he draws them
on the ground produces a whirring sound dis-
tinctly audible.

The male turkey is distinguished by short
blunt spurs, and a tuft of long coarse black
hair pendant from the lower part of the neck.
The carunculated skin of the head and neck is
more developed in the male than in the female,
whom he much exceeds in size. The general
plumage has a metallic lustre. In temper the

86 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

male turkey is extremely irascible; his fury,
like that of the bull, is excited by red or scarlet
colours, which rouse him to make an attack,
from which children are occasionally liable to
injury. We have more thaw once seen des-
perate battles between the turkey-cock and
game-cock, in which the latter was more
oppressed by the weight of his adversary than
by his gladiatorial skill, and received but little
injury.

Turkeys are birds of rambling habits, and
only fitted for the farm-yard and extensive
premises; they delight to wander in the
fields, in quest of insects, on which with
green herbage, berries, mast, and various seeds,
they greedily feed. In this manner the troop
will ramble about all day, returning to roost
in the evening, when they should have a good
supply of grain, and again in the morning.
When adult, the turkey is extremely hardy,
and will roost with impunity all night on the
branches of tall trees during the severity of
winter, especially if the weather be dry.
Still it is better for them to roost under cover,
on high perches in well-ventilated lofty sheds,
appropriated exclusively to them. Their size
renders them aunoying and troublesome in

THE TURKEY. 87

the ordinary fowl-house, and besides, the com-
mon poultry have a strong dislike to associate
with them.

The domestic turkey varies considerably
in colouring: we have seen some of pure white,
some of a delicate fawn colour, others of a
coppery tint, and others of a bronzed black.
The dark-coloured birds are considered the
most hardy, and are usually of a larger size
than the paler varieties, and are, therefore,
generally the most prized. The female lays
early in the spring: the number of eggs is
indeterminable, but she will cover no more
than twelve or fifteen: they are of a whitish
colour spotted with brown. The period of
incubation lasts for thirty days. During the
time the hen is sitting, she requires constant
attention: she should not only be secluded
from the male, but taken occasionally off the
nest to feed, and regularly supplied with fresh
water, otherwise she wiil continue to sit
without leaving for food, or refreshment, till
completely exhausted. At the time of hatch-
ing, far more care and attention is required
than in the case of the common hen, but in
the degree of protection which she shows
towards her brood, the turkey hen is far

85 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

inferior. She has neither the alertness, courage,
nor tender solicitude of the fowl; she is but
little apt in their defence, and has no idea of
calling them around her and teaching them to
pick and search for food: They require,
therefore, unremitting attention, until they are
fairly reared, and this is a work of no little
trouble, for although the adult turkey is so
hardy, a shower of rain will kill the chicks, and
irregularity of feeding will thin their numbers
rapidly. Linnzeus remarks that the young
relish garlic and nettles, and must be defended
from rain and hunger. Curd, the green part
of onions chopped, and boiled nettles, boiled
eggs, barley meal or oatmeal kneaded with
milk or water, chopped beet or turnip leaves,
etc., constitute the diet on which the chicks
best thrive. They should not be exposed to
great heat or cold, and it is better to have the
brood hatched rather late in the spring, when
the weather becomes settled, than at an early
period. —

Turkeys are crammed in order to attain the
requisite degree of plumpness for the London
poulterer ; and it is principally from Norfolk
that the London markets are supplied. This
process of fattening, in the case of turkey

THE TURKEY. 89

poults, may commence when they are about six
months old, and they require a longer time to
become fit for the market than the fowl. The
large birds which grace the shops at Christmas
are usually males of the preceding year. These
birds are oftenof extraordinary size and weight,
. ranging from fifteen to thirty pounds.

So far we have attended to the domestic
turkey ; but as the manners and habits of the
wild bird are remarkable and very interesting,
our history would be far from satisfactory
were we to abstain from detailing them. Our
authorities, it must be premised, are the Prince
of Canino, (C. L. Bonaparte,) and M. Audubon,
who have paid great attention to these birds
in their native forests.

“The native country of the wild turkey,”
says C. L. Bonaparte, “‘ extends from the north-
western territory of the United States to the
Isthmus of Panama, south of which it is not
to be found ; notwithstanding the statements
of authors who have mistaken the curassow
for it. In Canada, and the densely peopled
parts of the United States, wild turkeys were
very abundant ; but like the Indian and buffalo,
they have been compelled to yield to the de-
structive ingenuity of the white settlers, often

90 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

wantonly exercised, and seek refuge in the
remotest parts of theinterior. Although they
relinquish their native soil with slow and relue-
tant steps, yet such is the rapidity with which
settlements are extended and condensed over
the surface of this country, that we may
anticipate a day at no distant date, when the
hunter will seek the wild turkey in vain.”
From Audubon we learn that the unsettled
states of the Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and
Indiana, an immense extent of country to the
north-west of these distrécts, upon the Missis«
sippi and Missouri, and the vast regions
drained by these rivers, from their confluence
to Louisiana, including the wooded parts of
Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama, are the
most plentifully supplied with this magnificent
bird. It is less plentiful in Georgia and che
Carolinas,—becomes still scarcer in Virginia
and Pennsylvania, and is now very rarely seen
to the eastward of the last-mentioned states.
“The wild. turkeys do not confine them-
selves to any particular food; they eat maize,
all sorts of berries, fruits, grasses, beetles, and
even tadpoles; young frogs and lizards are
occasionaliy found in their crops; but where
the pecan nut is plentiful, they prefer that

THE TURKEY. 91

fruit to any other nourishment; their more
general predilection, however, is for the acorn,
on which they rapidly fatten. When an un-
usually profuse crop of acorns is produced in
a particular section of country, great numbers
of turkeys are enticed from their ordinary
haunts in the surrounding districts. About
the beginning of October, while the mast still
remains on the trees, they assemble in flocks,
‘and direct their course to the rich bottom-
lands. At this season they are observed in
great numbers on the Ohio and Mississippi.
The time of this irruption is known to the
Indians by the name of the turkey-month.
**The males, usually termed gobblers, asso-
ciate in parties numbering from ten to a hun-
dred, and seek their food apart from the
females, whilst the latter either move about
singly with their young, then nearly two-
thirds grown, or in company with other
females, and their families, ferm troops some-
times consisting of seventy or eighty indi-
viduals, all of whom are intent on avoiding
the old males, who, whenever opportunity
offers, attack and destroy the young by repeated
blows on the skull. All parties, however,
travel in the same direction, and on foot,

92 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

unless they are compelled to seek their indi-
vidual safety by flying from the hunter’s dog,
or their march is impeded by a large river.

** When about to cross a river they select
the highest eminences that their flight may be
the more certain, and here they sometimes
remain for a day or more, as if for the pur-
pose of consultation, or to be duly prepared
for so hazardous a voyage. During this time
the males gobble obstreperously and_ strut
with extraordinary importance, as if they
would animate their companions, and inspire,
them with the utmost degree of hardihood ;
the females and young also assume much of
the pompous air of the males, the former
spreading their tails and moving silently*
around. At length the assembled multitude
mount to the tops of the highest trees, whence
at a single note, from a leader, the whole
together wing their way towards the opposite
shore. All the old and fat ones cross without
difficulty, but the young, meagre, and weak,
often fall short of the desired landing, and
are forced to swim for their lives. This they
do dexterously enough, spreading out their

* Audubon says the females purr loudly and perform extra-
vagant leaps.

is)

THE TURKEY. 93

tails for a support, closing the wings to the
body, stretching the neck forwards, and strik-
ing out quickly and forcibly with their legs.
If in thus endeavouring to gain the land, they
approach an elevated or inaccessible bank,
their exertions are remitted, they resign them-
selves to the stream for a short time, in
order to gain strength, and then with one
violent effort escape from the water. But in
this attempt all are not successful: some of
the weaker, as they cannot rise sufliciently
high in the air to clear the bank, fall again
and again into the water, and thus miserably
perish. Immediately the turkeys have suc-
ceeded in crossing a river, they for some time
ramble about without any unanimity of pur-
pose, and a great many are destroyed by the
hunters, although they are then least valuable.

‘When the turkeys have arrived in their
land of abundance, they disperse in small
flocks, composed of individuals of all sexes
and ages intermingled, who devour all the
mast as they advance. This occurs about
the middle of November. It has been ob-
served that, after these long journeys the
turkeys become so familiar ‘as to venture
on the plantations, and even approach so near

94 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

farm-houses as to enter the stable and corn-
cribs in search of food. In this way they pass
the autumn and part of the winter. During
this season great numbers are killed by the
inhabitants, who preserve them in a frozen
state, in order to transport them to a distant
market.” From the middle of February to
March, the male turkeys seek to join the
females, which a short time previously separate ©
from and avoid them. At this season the
males strut about, uttering their loud gobbling
notes, and often engage in desperate combats,
terminating in the death or flight of one of
the parties. At night the males and females
roost apart from each other, in the wood, but
at no great distance, so that they are within
the sound of each other’s voices; and when
the female utters a call note, it is responded
to by numerous males, rolling out note after
note, with great velocity, much in the manner
of the domestic turkey-cock when suddenly
alarmed.

Three or four hens, or even more, are usually
attached to a single male ; they wander about
in company together, and roost in the same
or adjacent trees. This association continues
till the females begin to lay, which is usually

THE TURKEY. 95

about the middle of April, when they forsake
_ the male, and look out for suitable places in
which to deposit their eggs. Several hens
sometimes associate together and make a
common nest, incubating together as if for
mutual safety, and rearing and watching over
their united broods in common. | The chosen
spot is always dry and well concealed; for the
lynx, the fox, the polecat, and the crow are
enemies to be guarded against ; the nest con-
sists of dried leaves deposited in a shallow
depression under the cover of dense brush-
wood, amidst piled up logs or masses of fallen
timber, or in other obscure and retired situa-
tions. The eggs, from nine to fifteen in num-
her, are of a whitish colour, spotted with red-
dish brown.

On leaving her nest the female cautiously
covers the eggs with dried leaves, lest they
should catch the prying eye of some marauder,
and both on leaving them, and in returning,
she varies her route, rarely pursuing the same
track twice together. On the approach of man,
or any animal, the female crouches closer on
her eggs, watching every movement with the
greatest attention, and if no notice be taken
of her will permit a very close approximation;

96 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

if, however, she perceive that she is discovered,
she runs off for several yards, then pauses,
struts about, and utters from time to time a
cluck of anxiety or impatience. On the de-
parture of the intruder, she cautiously returns.
It is not often on account of interruption from
man that she abandons the eggs; but if any
have been sucked by the crow, polecat, or
snake, she infallibly leaves them; this, how-
ever, seldom happens where several females
incubate in concert, as one or more always
guards the common nest, while the others are
temporarily absent.

When the eggs are at the point of hatching,
the female is doubly assiduous, and will die
rather than leave them. She will even suffer
an inclosure to be drawn around her, and
while thus imprisoned will attend to her
duties. Audubon says, “J once witnessed
the hatching of a brood of turkeys, which I
watched for the purpose of securing them to-
gether with the parent. I concealed myself
on the ground within a very few feet, and saw
her raise herself half the length of her legs,
look anxiously upon the eggs, cluck with a
sound peculiar to the mother on such occa-
sions, carefully remove each half empty shell,

THE TURKEY. 97

and with her bill caress and dry the young
birds, that already stood tottering and at-
tempting to make their way out of the nest.
Yes, I have seen this, and have left the mother
and young to-better care than mine could have
proved, to the care of their Creator and mine.
I have seen them all emerge from the shell,
and in a few moments after, tumble, roll, and
push each other forward, with astonishing and
inscrutable instinct.’

When the young are dry and sufficiently
strong, the female rises from her nest, shakes
and arranges her plumage, and prepares to
lead them abroad. She walks slowly along,
with half expanded wings, and by repeated
clucks keeps them together and around her.
Her eyes are incessantly on the watch, she
glances anxiously in every direction, scrutinizes
the trees, the sky, the ground, and the thickets,
lest her brood be suddenly assailed by the
hawk or the fox. She avoids also low and
wet grounds, resorting to elevated spots, for
instinct has told her that the brood when once
their soft down is wetted seldom survive.
Hence it happens that in rainy seasons young
turkeys are very scarce.

For the first few days, the female does not

7

98 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

lead her brood to a distance, and usually
returns with them to the nest as the evening
comes on, where they rest during the night,
huddled up warm beneath her wings. As
they gain strength, they make wider ex-
cursions, visit the glades and more open parts
near the wood, and there pick up various
fruits, berries, and insects, as grasshoppers, ete.
and the larvee of ants. They luxuriate in the
sun, and roll themselves in sandy places, or
in deserted ants’ nests, and thus clean their
growing plumage. In about a fortnight, the
young begin to roost at night on the lower
branches of a tree, but still under the care of
the female parent who covers them with her
“wings, as they sit in two parties crouching on
each side.

After this period the growth of the young
turkeys is very rapid, and towards the middle
of August, when several broods under the
care of their respective mothers associate
together, they are quite able to provide for
their own safety and escape from enemies.
Their wings are vigorous, and their limbs
robust and active; they easily mount into the
branches of the trees or run to shelter in
some covers. Soon after this period the great

THE TURKEY. 99

re-union of the females with their broods and
of the adult males takes place, preparatory to
the October migration from one district to
another.

Besides man, who employs traps of various
kinds, and the gun, in the capture of this bird,
the turkey has numerous enemies, of which
the lynx, the snowy owl, and the Virginian
owl, are the most formidable. The lynx
follows the flock, singles out stragglers, and
lies in ambush till an opportunity of springing
upon his victim occurs. The owls attack
them while roosting at night, and hovering
over the trees on silent wing, make a rapid
and often fatal pounce on the unconscious
sleeper. In this, however, the owl is not
always successful, for if discovered by one
wakeful turkey, a single cluck announces to
the whole flock, the presence of their foe. In
an instant, every bird stands upright on its
perch, and intently watches the motions of
the winged marauder, and prepares for the
swoop. Having selected his prey, down comes
the owl, with arrow-like rapidity and vast
force, against which positive resistance would
be vain, but just at the proper instant the
wary turkey lowers its head, and stooping,

D2

100 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

spreads its stiff tail in an inverted manner
over its back, and along this, as a smooth in-
clined plane, the owl glances, without injury
to the turkey, which immediately drops to the
ground, with the loss of a few feathers, and
conceals itself.

The wild turkey is very shy, and generally
makes off on the appearance of a man, yet
when at roost, though a single owl would
alarm a whole troop, the hunter may thin
their numbers with his gun during moonlight,
neither the report, nor the sight of their com-
panion dropping from the branches, exciting
more than a buzzing noise, expressive rather
of astonishment than of positive fright.
*“When, (says Audubon,) after a heavy fall of
snow, the weather becomes frosty so as to form
a hard crust on the surface, the turkeys remain
on their roosts for three or four days, some-
times much longer, which proves their capa-
bility of continued abstinence. When near
farms, however, they leave the roosts and go
into the very stables, and about the stacks of
corn, to procure food. During melting snow-
falls, they will travel to an extraordinary dis-
tance, and are then followed in vain, it being
impossible for hunters of any description to

THE TURKEY. 101

keep up with them. They have then a dang-
ling and straggling way of running, which,
awkward as it may seem, enables them to out-
strip any other animal. I have often, when
on a good horse, been obliged to abandon the
attempt to put them up, after following them
for several hours. This habit of running in
rainy or very damp weather of any kind is not
peculiar to the wild turkey, but is common to
all gallinaceous birds. In America, the dif-
ferent species of grouse exhibit the same
tendency.”

During the breeding season, the males may
be allured within gun-shot by imitating the
call note of the female. It is done by forcibly
drawing the air through one of the wing
bones of a turkey, but it requires great
practice, for the quick ear of the male im-
mediately detects the slightest error of into-
nation, and immediately retreats.

The size of the wild turkey and the quality
of the flesh vary according to abundance or
scarcity of food. In districts where food is
plentiful, the wild turkey is said to be superior
to the tame bird for the table, and is in the
highest season late in the autumn. In Mexico,
however, the wild turkey, according to Her-

102 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

nandez, is inferior to the domestic breed, its
flesh being dry and hard; this, perhaps, is
owing to the quality of the food.

The wild turkey is far superior in stature and
beauty to the tame bird; the latter, even in
America, its native country, is deteriorated by
domestication ; hence mixed breeds between the
wild and tame are much valued, and procured
when possible. ‘‘ Eggs of the wild turkey have
been frequently taken from their nests and
hatched under the tame hen; the young pre-
serve a portion of their uncivilized nature, and
exhibit some knowledge of the difference be-
tween themselves and their foster mother,
roosting apart from the tame ones, and in
other respects showing the force of hereditary
disposition. ‘The domesticated young reared
from the eggs of the wild turkey are often
employed as decoy birds to those in a state of
nature. Mr. William Bloom, of Clurfield,
Pennsylvania, caught five or six wild turkeys
when quite chickens, and succeeded in rearing
them. Although sufficiently tame to feed
with his tame turkeys, and generally associate
with them, yet they always retained some of
their original propensities, roosting by them-

THE TURKEY. 103

selves, and higher than the tame birds, gene-
rally on the top of some tree or of the house.
They were also more readily alarmed: on the
approach of a dog, they would fly off and seek
safety in the nearest woods. On an occasion
of this kind, one of them flew across the Sus-
quehanna, and the owner was apprehensive
of losing it; in order to recover it, he sent a
boy with a tame turkey, which was released
at the place where the fugitive had alighted.
This plan was. successful, they soon joined
company, and the tame bird induced his com-
panion to return home. Mr. Bloom remarked
that the wild turkey will thrive more and keep
in better condition than the tame on the same
quantity of food.’ C. L. Bonaparte.

The author last quoted states that some
domesticated turkeys of a very superior me-
tallic tint are sold in the Philadelphia and
New York markets as wild ones: many of
these require a practised eye to distinguish
their true character, but they are always rather
less brilliant, and have a broad whitish band
at the top of the ¢ail-coverts, and another at
the top of the tail itself, which immediately
betrays them: the real wild birds are destitute

104 OUR LOMESTIC FOWLS.

of the whitish band on the tail-coverts, and
the band at the top of the tail is neither so
wide nor so purely white.

The female wild turkey is far inferior in size
to the male; she is adult and in full colouring
at four years’ old, and then possesses the pec-
toral tuft of hair, of about four inches in length.
Her weight is from nine to ten pounds, but
the male varies from fifteen to twenty pounds
in weight. Birds of thirty pounds are not
rare ; and instances have occurred, of their
weight being thirty-six, and even forty pounds.
In April and May, the males are thin, and out
of condition; yet C. L. Bonaparte notices a
specimen killed on the Missouri in April, which
weighed twenty-two pounds, but which, when
in good condition, must have exceeded thirty.
The male wild turkey may be regarded as ma-
ture at the age of between three and four years,
but, for several years afterwards, increases in
weight and the metallic lustre of the
plumage.

It is much to be regretted that the wholesale
destruction to which this noble bird is sub-
jected throughout the whole extent of its
range, tends every year to diminish its num-
bers, insomuch that in a comparatively short

THE TURKEY. 105

period of time, the wild turkey will rank in
the list of animals which man has utterly ex-
tirpated.

Besides the wild turkey of North America, a
distinct species, the Honduras turkey (Melea-
gris ocellata) is found in certain parts of central
America, adjacent to Mexico. The first speci-
men, known formerly in Bullock’s collection,
now in the museum of Paris, was brought from
the Bay of Honduras. A fine specimen is in
the British Museum. This bird is considerably
smaller than the common wild turkey, but is
far more beautiful, the metallic hues and irri-
descence of its plumage equalling those of
some of the humming birds,—black, golden,
bronze, blue, emerald green, and rufous, are
intermingled in exquisite contrast ; and on the
tail-feathers and upper tail-coverts, there are
beautiful ocellated markings. The legs are
lake-red.

Of the habits of this refulgent species, no-
thing is distinctly known. It appears to be
very rare, unless, perhaps, in some localities,
which are as yet unexplored.

Dio

106 OUR DOMES'TIC FOWLS.

THE GUINEA-FOWL,

The guinea-fowl, or pintado, (Numida melea-
gris,) is the true meleagris of the ancients,* a
term generically applied by Belon, Aldrovandus,
and Gesner, to the turkey, and now retained,
although the error is acknowledged, in order
to prevent confusion.

The common guinea-fowl is a native of Africa,
where it appears to be extensively spread,
frequenting the banks of rivers, and marshes,
and open-humed localities, where various ber-
ries, seeds, insects, and slugs are in abundance.
In its habits it is decidedly gregarious, and
associates in large flocks, which wander abroad
during the day in search of food, and collect
together on the approach of evening, in order
to roost upon some tall tree, or clump of trees,
where they crowd in close array on the
branches. It is not without difficulty that
these birds can be forced to take to flight, and
then it is only for a short distance. They
trust principally to their rapid mode of run-
ning, and to their dexterity in threading the
mazes of brushwood and dense herbage, for
security. They scour the woodland glades

* See Ovid Metam. lib, viii. fab. 4,

THE GUINEA-FOWL. 107

and the open lands, bordering forests, or
wild thickets, with great celerity, and quickly
escape pursuit. In disposition they are shy,
wary, and alert.

The guinea-fowl has. been alluded to by vari-
ous travellers in Africa, as Adamson, Dampier,
Le Vaillant, and others; but as upwards of
six distinct species are now known, (some of
very great beauty,) and as they give no specific
indications, we cannot positively say to which
species they allude. However, it cannot be
doubted that, in general manners and disposi-
tion, they all closely agree.

We have incontestable proof that the ancient
Greeks and Romans were well acquainted with
the guinea-fowl (or meleagris). It is noticed
by Aristotle, among the former, and by Pliny,
Varro, and Columella, among the latter. The
wonder is that Belon, a scholar, should ever have
considered the turkey as the bird in question.

But though, as we have said, this bird was
known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, it
does not appear to have spread rapidly, or been
thoroughly naturalized, otherwise Belon’s mis-
take would be unpardonable. In fact, we lose
all trace of it in the middle ages, and strange
to say, it appears to have come to us, not from

108 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Africa, (and here we suspect the confusion
arises,) but from the western world, where it
had been introduced with human bondsmen
torn from their native soil to supply the place
of the miserably slaughtered population of the
western world, and condemned to labour for the
conquering white man, for him whose only pas-
sion, under the veil of popish religion, was “‘the
accursed thirst for gold,” “ auri sacra fames.”

We learn that about the year 1508, numbers
of these birds were brought into America with
the cargoes of negro slaves :—‘‘ The Spaniards
neither at that time nor ever since, have
attempted to tame them, or render them
domestic, useful birds, but let them go loose
and wild in the savannahs, where they have
increased in such prodigious numbers, that
they may well appear native; and are seen in
vast flocks together. They are called Maroon
Pentates by the Spaniards and French,”
(Observ. sur les Cout. de lAsie, p. 190.) At
the present day, in Jamaica, but more espe-
cially Hayti, and other islands adjacent, the
guinea-fowl, or pintado, is regarded as a wild |
bird and shot like other game. — With respect
to the British islands we are unable to say at
what period it was introduced. We do not

THE GUINEA-FOWL. 109.

find its name occurring in the list of birds in
the famous feast of archbishop Neville in the
reign of Edward rv.; it does not appear on
the duke of Northumberland’s household-book,
1512, nor is it alluded to in the household-
book of Henry virt., yet in these lists of flesh
and fowl for the table, the peion, or peacock,
is distinctly and conspicuously noted. It
would appear, then, not to have been intro-
duced until after the turkey ;—(we must par-
don Belon,)—probably not until the end of the
seventeenth, or beginning of the eighteenth
century. Even at present, in our country, it is
far less generally kept than the turkey. In the
colder latitudes of Europe, it is yet scarcely
known. Linneevs does not mention it in his
«Fauna Suecica,”’ and we believe that neither
Denmark, Norway, nor Northern Russia pos-
sesses it; at all events it is scarce. In India,
the guinea-fowl is to be seen only in a domestic
state, and is bred almost exclusively by
European gentlemen. It thrives as well as in
its native country. (See Proc. Zool. Soc.,
1832, p. 152.)

Such is the meagre outline of facts which
we have been able to collect respecting the
European naturalization of the guinea-fowl.

110 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

The guinea-fowl retains in a state of domes-
tication no small share of its original wildness,
and restless wandering habits, and hence when
closely confined it becomes dull and pining,
and little disposed to breed; it loves a wide
range of thickets, fields, and pasture grounds,
and the run of open farm-yards, where it
searches for insects, seeds, and green herbage,
the flock traversing the hedge-rows and brakes,
in the same manner as do turkeys. Like the
turkey, too, the hen guinea-fowl conceals her
nest from the male; for though at other times
he is affectionate and solicitous, yet he evinces
a great dislike to incubation, and on discover-
ing the eggs never fails to destroy them. The
hen, consequently, makes choice of the most
secluded spot, so much so, that it is not with-
out difficulty her retreat is discovered; and
instances have come under our own notice in
which a hen guinea-fowl has appeared in the
farm-yard with a young brood attending upon
her, after she had been given up as lost, or
accidentally killed. In these instances, the
eggs and young are subject to the attacks of
foxes, polecats, weasels, and birds of prey; and
as the guinea-fowl seldom shows much disposi-
tion to incubate if kept under restraint, it is a

THE GUINEA-FOWL. i111

common practice to place the eggs under a
common fowl, the risk of the loss of the brood
being thus avoided. The natural period of
incubation is from twenty-eight to twenty-nine
days. The female guinea-fowl commences lay-
ing in May, and continues to lay during the
summer, and it is not until the latter part of
the summer that, if left to her instinct, she
begins to sit upon her eggs; these are smaller
than those of the ordinary barn-door fowl, and
are remarkable for the hardness of the shell,
which is of a pale yellowish red, finely dotted
with a darker tint. Their flavour is reckoned
very superior.

The guinea-fowl may be said to succeed the
pheasant in the London market, coming in after
the season of the latter is over, and it must be
acknowledged that the flesh of the young bird
is very delicate, juicy, and well-flavoured—this
remark, however, only applies to the young, for
old birds, even those of the second year, are
dry, tough, and tasteless, nor will the larding
of the poulterer improve them. .

The guinea-fowl is too well known to need a
detailed description, nor is it subject to much
variation of plumage. Individuals with the
breast or under parts more or less extensively

ala, OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

white are common; and we have occasionally
seen cream-coloured birds, in which, however,
the white spots are clearly to be distinguished.
Trees, where accessible, or tall thick bushes,
are its favourite roosting-places, and on these
the flock cluster, even during the winter, the
cold of which they endure with great hardiness.
We have noticed this indifference to cold in the
pea-fowl, originally from India, and the same
observation applies to the guinea-fowl of Africa,
and we may also add the common fowl, of
Indian origin ; nor can we avoid seeing in these
facts a wise provision, for the express purpose
of facilitating the diffusion of species eminently
useful to man.

The domestic guinea-fowl is by no means
strong on the wing. Its note is a peculiar
harsh querulous sound, often repeated, and
certainly not agreeable; it reminds us of the
noise of a cart-wheel turning on an ungreased
axle-tree, or the creaking of rusty hinges,
Besides the common guinea-fowl, (Numida
meleagris,) several other wild species are
known, some of which are remarkable for
their beauty. All are African. In the genus
numida, the males are destitute of spurs,

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Group. 118

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP.

Very numerous are the species comprehended
under the term pigeon, (Columba,) and many
are the genera into which they are resolvable.
Their geographic distribution is most extensive.
Some species seem very widely spread, as the
rock-dove, found alike in Europe, Asia, and
Africa, while others are restricted in the range
of their natural territory. Europe, Asia,
Africa, America, Australia, the Indian Archi-
pelago, New Zealand, and various islands in
the southern ocean, present us with various and
beautiful species of the columbine group; of
these, some are exclusively arboreal and fruit-
eaters; as the aromatic pigeon of Java, the
manosope of New Guinea, and the nutmeg
pigeon of the Moluccas ; others are partially
terrestrial in their habits, as the ring-pigeon
or cushat, and the stock-dove or wood-pigeon of
Europe; and others are exclusively terrestrial,
as the carunculated pigeon (Geophilus caruncu-
latus) of South Africa, and some American and
Australian species. A few, as the rock-pigeon,
(Columba livia,) frequent abrupt and inacces-
sible precipices, along the shores of the sea,

114 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

and rear their young on the ledges, or in the
rifts and fissures of the rock.

There has been much difference among
naturalists respecting the natural affinities of
the pigeon, or columbine group; some con-
sidering them as forming a part of the rasorial,
or gallinaceous order, others regarding them
as constituting a distinct order, an opinion
entertained by Temminck, De Blainyille, and
the prince of Musignano, and which we think
is correct. Though zoological niceties in a
popular work like the present are out of place,
still it may not be uninteresting to the general
reader to follow out a succinct review of those
peculiarities, which draw a line of demarcation
between the pigeons and the gallinaceous, or
other orders of the feathered race.

The gallinaceous birds are polygamous, and
the females lay numerous eggs; the young are
hatched in a very developed state, and soon
run about and feed themselves. Pigeons, on
the contrary, pair; and it would appear that
in general a single male and female remain
mated for life. Both work in concert in the
construction of a rude inartificial nest, in
which the female deposits two eggs, on which
the male and female sit in turn. The young

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Group. 115

are hatched blind, unfledged, naked, and help-
less, and require the assiduous care of their
parents, even for some time after they are able
to leave the nest. Consequently they are fed
by the parents, and herewith is connected one
of the most singular points in the economy of
these birds, which indicates their far remove
from any of the gallinaceous order.

Most persons have had an opportunity of
seeing pigeons feeding their young; the old
birds place their beaks in the open mouth of
the young, and by means of a voluntary action
transfer nutriment from their own crop into
that of their nestlings. Many naturalists have
supposed the nutriment thus transferred to
be nothing more than the macerated grain, or
peas which have been previously swallowed ;
but this is not correct ; for at first the young
are not capable of digesting this coarse aliment.
They are, in fact, fed by a secretion closely
analogous to milk, and poured out from cer-
tain glands in the crop, both of the male and
female, but at the time only when such a
secretion is needed. This fact was correctly
ascertained by the celebrated John Hunter.
** During incubation (he says) the coats of the
crop in the pigeon are gradually enlarged and

116 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

thickened, like what happens to the udder of
females of the class mammalia, during the term
of gestation. On comparing the state of the
crop when the bird is not sitting with its ap-
pearance during incubation, the difference is
remarkable. In the first case it is thin and
membraneous, but by the time the young are
about to be hatched, the whole, except what
lies on the windpipe, becomes thickened and
takes a glandular appearance, having its in-
ternal surface very irregular. It is likewise
more vascular than in its former state, that it
may convey a quantity of blood sufficient for
the secretion of this substance, which is to
nourish the young brood for some days after
they are hatched. Whatever may be the con-
sistence of this substance when just secreted,
it most probably soon coagulates into a granu-
lated white curd; for in such a form I have
found it in the crop, and if an old pigeon is
killed just as the young ones are hatching, the
crop will be found as above described, and in
its cavity pieces of curd mixed with some of
the common food of the pigeon, such as barley,
beans, ete. If we allow either of the parents
to feed the young, its crop when examined,
will be discovered to contain the same curdled

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GRouP. 117

substance, which passes thence into the stomach
(of the young), where it is to be digested.”
‘The young pigeon is fed for some time with
this substance only, and about the third day
some of the common food is found mingled
with it; as the pigeon grows older the pro-
portion of common food is increased, so that
by the time it is seven, eight, or nine days
old, the secretion of curd ceases in the old
ones, and, of course, no more will be found in
the crop of the young.”

“Tt is a curious fact, that the parent pigeon
has at first the power to throw up this curd,
without any mixture of common food, though
afterwards both are thrown up according to
the proportion required for the young ones:
I have called this substance curd, not as being
literally so, but as resembling that more than
anything I know; it may, however, have a
greater resemblance to curd than anything we
are aware of; for neither this secretion, nor
the curd from which the whey has been pressed,
seem to contain any sugar, and do not run
into the acetous fermentation.” (On Anim.
Econ.)

Montagu calls this a milky or lacteal secre-
tion, and rightly regards it as “cammon to

118 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

both sexes of the dove genus,” and from our
own observations we should say that the curd
is mixed up with a fluid secretion in the crop
previously to being transferred into that of the
young,—nay, sometimes so abundant is this
fluid that we have seen it drip from the bills
of the old birds, both while feeding their young,
and at other times.

Though nothing like this lacteous secretion
for the support of the newly-hatched young is
produced by any of the truly gallinaceous
tribes, yet we must not suppose that it is
altogether limited to the pigeons. Some, if
not all of the parrots, as John Hunter observes,
appear to be endowed with the same faculty,
and it will, perhaps, be found to prevail
amongst the passerine tribes more extensively
than is suspected by naturalists.

Besides this great point of distinction
between the columbine and gallinaceous birds,
and the other grounds of dissimilarity to which
we have advyerted, the following may also be
enumerated. Instead while drinking, of taking
water into the mouth and elevating the head,
in order to swallow, as we see the fowl do, the
pigeon simply takes a continuous draught.
White says—‘ Most birds drink sipping at

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 119

intervals, but pigeons take a long-continued
draught, like quadrupeds.”

The hind toe, instead of being elevated on
the leg, or tarsus, in the pigeon, is upon the
same plane as the anterior toes; it is fairly
pressed to the ground in walking, and em-
braces the roost in perching. Again, the wings
are long, the quill feathers firm, and the flight
remarkable for rapidity and endurance. To
these rules there are certain exceptions, some
of the more terrestrial species of pigeon being
found to approximate in some degree, as it
respects these particulars, to the gallinaceous
tribes, while, at the same time, no one can
mistake their true affinities. Two species of
crowned pigeon* (Lophyrus) for example are
known, both from the Moluccas, New Guinea,
etc. Yet these large and heavy birds, almost
exclusively terrestrial in their habits, and ex-
ceeding a fowl in size, are in essential structure
true pigeons, though the wings and limbs
approximate to those of gallinaceous birds.

We will not here enter into technical
details, but we believe that, in a thorough
examination of the internal organization, the

* Both species haye been kept alive (1845) in the gardens
of the Zool, Soc,

120 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

opinion which goes to associate the columbine
tribes into an order distinct from any other,
will be found to be completely justified.

De Blainville places the pigeons in an order
which he calls Sponsores. The prince of
Musignano terms them Gyrantes, (in allusion
to their circular flight.) In the ‘‘ Museum of
Animated Nature” they are termed Gyratores.

Tue Domestic Piazon. — The domestic
pigeon is divided into almost innumerable
varieties, from the high-bred carrier to
the ordinary race of the dovecote; yet, di-
versified as they are in appearance, they
are all, according to the opinion of those who
have investigated the subject, descendants of
the common rock doye,* (Columba livia.) To
this opinion, were we not from experience
aware of the difficulty of keeping up any
remarkable strain in its purity, we should
hesitate to subscribe; and we are not quite
sure that there is not some ancient admixture
of allied species, (as we believe to be in the
instance of the dog,) whence, perhaps, arises
a certain constitutional tendency to assume, at
indefinite periods, varieties of form and con-

* Not the stock dove, (Col. Zinas,) which is a forest or wood-
land bird, and has obtained its title in error.

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 121

tout. We doubt much whether any plans of
treatment or inter-breeding would ever produce
a carrier or horseman, so singularly specific
are they in their characters, and of this we are
sure, that if the breed be once extinct, no arts
will ever consummate its renewal. Other
varieties are far more easily accounted for,—
but this, of ancient lineage, descended from a
remote line of oriental ancestry, has continued
in distinctness to the present day. ‘True, it
has been interbred with baser strains by
fanciers ; but more or less pure, its distinctive
characters yet survive, often in high perfection.
We may say the same, with some reservation,
respecting the barb,—a black pigeon with an
occipital crest and a naked circle of scarlet
skin round the eyes.

But before we attempt to give a sketch,
(and a sketch only, for we are not of the
fancy,) of the principal varieties of the domestic
pigeon, it may be as well to turn our atten-
tion to their assumed origin, the rock pigeon,
and give a brief history of its general habits
and economy.

Tae Rock Piceon (Columba livia).—Ie
Biset and Le Rocheraye of the French writers,
Piccione de Rocca, ete., of the Italians, Colom-

122 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

men of the ancient British, is a bird of wide
dispersion. It is a native of the British
islands, breeding upon the sea-side rocks. It
abounds in the Orkneys and Hebrides, along
the rocky shores of Wales, and various other
places on our coasts, not excepting old towers,
and ruins a few miles inland, as we ourselves
can personally testify. Throughout Europe,
the same observations apply ; along the coasts
of France, Spain, and Italy, it frequents in
multitudes the same localities. The rocky
islands of the Mediterranean are its favourite
abodes; it was known of old in Greece; it
abounds in northern Africa, and along the
Asiatic shores far into India. And here we
cannot but advert to a passage in the Zool.
Proc. 1832, respecting a pigeon noticed by
colonel Sykes in his account of the birds of the
Dukhun. The passage is as follows: ‘ Co-
lumba Afnas, Linn, Stock-pigeon, parwa of
the Mahrattas. The*most common bird in
the Dukhun, congregating in flocks of scores,
and a constant inhabitant of every old dilapi-
dated building. Colonel Sykes saw the same
species on board ship on the voyage to Eng-
land brought from China. Irides, orange, ete.
The Dukhun bird differs from the European

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GRoup. 123

species in the biil being black,* instead of
pale red, in the utter want of white in the
quills; the want of white in the tail-feathers;
and in the legs being brownjy instead of
black. As these differences are permanent,
they might justify a specific name being
applied to the Dukhun pigeon.”

Now we hesitate not to say that this bird
was not the Stock-dove (C. Anas) nor any
variety of it, but the Rock-dove (C. Livia) or
a closely allied species (if not mere variety),
and this might be presumed from the fact
alone of its inhabiting old dilapidated build-
ings. Selby speaking of the Rock-dove says,
‘*‘ Aithough this species seems to have fallen
frequently under the notice of our orni-
thologists (as may be gathered from their
descriptions and the localities they have given
to it,) yet it has always been attended by the
original supposition of this and the preceding
species (stock-dove) being identical. In form
and size they very nearly agree, the rock-dove
being, perhaps, rather more slender. The
predominant shades of each are also much

* Bill blackish brown. Selby, art. Rock-dove.

+ Legs pale purplish red. Selby, art. Rock-dove. Bright
ecchineal red in the stock-dove,—Idem,

124 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

the same; the principal variations consisting
in the colour of the rump, which, in the stock-
dove, is invariably bluish grey, but in the rock-
dove generally white, in the two distinct
bands of bars (of black) crossing the wings of
the latter bird, and in the colour of the breast
and belly, which, in the former bird (stock-
dove) is more of a purplish red. The dis-
similarity of their habits, however, marks
even more strongly the specific difference be-
tween them, than the proofs drawn from the
plumage, the stock-dove being a constant
inhabitant of the woods, and frequently the
interior of the country;* but the species
under consideration is in its wild state always
met with inhabiting rocky places, and these
principally on the sea-coast.”

White, in his natural history of Selborne,
clearly distinguishes between the stock-dove
which frequents the beech-woods, and the
rock-dove. ‘‘ For my own part (he says ina
letter to Pennant) I readily concur with you
in supposing that house-doves are derived
from the small blue rock-pigeon for many
reasons. In the first place, the wild stock-
dove is manifestly larger than the common

* It is migratory.

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 125

house-dove, against the usual rule of domesti-
cation, which generally enlarges the breed.
Again, those two remarkable black spots on
the remiges of each wing of the stock-dove
would not, one would think, be totally lost by
its being reclaimed, but would often break out
among its descendants. But what is worth a
hundred arguments is the instance you give
in sir Roger Mostyn’s house-doves in Carnar-
vonshire, which, though tempted by plenty
of food and gentle treatment, can never be
prevailed upon to inhabit their cote for any
time; but as soon as they begin to breed
betake themselves to the fastnesses of Arms-
head, and deposit their young in safety amidst
the inaccessible caverns and precipices of that
stupendous promontory.”

Wild pigeons, as we have often noticed, not
unfrequently take up their abode in the holes
and fissures of old ruins, church towers or
steeples, or similar places, and that at a con-
siderable distance inland, nay, even remote
from the sea. But whether these are true
rock-doves, or house-pigeons returned to a
state of independence, or a mixture of both,
it is not always easy to determine. Great
numbers frequent Canterbury cathedral;

126 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

mostly they are blue, but as other colours
occur, it is not improbable that there is a
mixture of house pigeons with true wild
pigeons.

The markets of London during the season
are supplied with vast quantities of young
pigeons or squabs, mostly of a leaden blue
colour ; and in various parts, large dove-cotes
are kept for the express purpose of remitting
their produce to the market. It would be
difficult to distinguish between these blue
dove-cote pigeons and the wild rock-dove.
We haye seen vast flocks of dove-cote pigeons
in France, amongst which the prevailing
colour was blue.

The rock-dove feeds on grain and seeds of
various kinds, yet not exclusively, for accord-
ing to Montagu it is very fond of various
species of snail, and especially that inhabiting
the shell termed Helix virgata. About three
broods are reared every season.

Turning from the rock-dove, to its tame
representative, the common dove-cote pigeon,
we may observe that in most countries it is
kept in abundance for the supply of the table,
and the markets of most large towns are plen-
tifully supplied, In Persia, however, though

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Group. 1927

large dove-cotes, like towers, are conspicuous
objects near towns and villages, it is not for
the table that these birds are reared, but for
the sake of the dung, which is used as a
manure for melon grounds ; it is in fact a sort
of “Guano,” the supply of which is regularly
kept up, especially in the neighbourhood of
Ispahan, where the melons are celebrated for
their superiority. This manure is dear, but
almost indispensable.

These dove-cote pigeons of Persia are all of
a leaden blue colour; a white pigeon is in
fact so rare as to be regarded as a sort of
prodigy, and formerly was looked upon with
superstitious aversion. In the outskirts of
Ispahan, the pigeon-houses are striking ob-
jects, and at a distance might be taken for
towers of defence or lofty strong-holds ; they
are generally surmounted by smaller towers,
capped with a sugar-loaf spire, having aper-
tures for the entrance and exit of the birds.
The inside is replete with breeding cells, in
close array, for the accommodation of many
hundreds. From these towers vast clouds of
pigeons issue, wheeling about in masses so ex-
tensive and compact, as to obscure the sun
when they pass overhead, Yet it would

128 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

appear that such numbers are not now kept,
as were formerly, for some of the pigeon-
towers are almost or quite tenantless; still,
however, the multitudes are very great, and
the noise of their wings as they suddenly rush
forth when alarmed is astounding. Our classic
readers may remember Virgil’s beautiful simile
of the frightened dove rushing from her
rocky cavern, of which the following is Dry-
den’s translation :

** As when the dove her rocky hold forsakes,
Rous’d in a fright her sounding wings she shakes
The cavern rings with clattering, out she fiies
And leaves her callow care, and cleaves the skies;
At first she flutters, but at length she springs
To smoother flight, and shoots upon her wings.”
ZENEID, l. v.

The clattering of a single dove is but a
whisper compared to the roar of accumulated
thousands.

In the east generally, pigeons, from the
earliest times, have been great favourites and
kept in multitudes. The author of the ‘‘Phy-
sical History of Palestine’ says, ‘‘The in-
habitauts of Syria and Palestine are fond of
pigeons, like the western Asiatics generally.
Conspicuous dove-cotes are seen profusely in
most of the villages, and vast flocks of wild
doves appear about the time the corn begins

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 129

to ripen, and remain till the harvest is over.
In Scripture, the allusions to doves and
pigeons are so numerous as to evince that they
were equally common and equally valued in
ancient times.* In Egypt also, now, as an-
ciently, incredible numbers of these birds are
kept, and in the villages, the dwellings made
for them are at the least as conspicuous as
those which man builds for himself.” We
cannot definitely ascertain whether the pigeon
was among the sacred birds of the ancient
Egyptians.

Our account of the purpose for which
pigeons are kept in such vast numbers in
Persia recalls to mind a passage of some
difficulty in the Second Book of Kings, chap.
vi. 25,—‘‘and the fourth part of a cab of
dove’s dung (sold) for five pieces of silver.”
Was it for this as a manure that such multi-
tudes of pigeons were annually kept in Syria
and Egypt? and is its use as such, a remnant
of antique practice, still lingering in Persia?

* Jeremiah thus alludes to the wild rock-dove. ‘‘O ye that
dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the rock, and be like
the dove, that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.”
Jer. xviii. 28. Isaiah takes the following simile from the
domestic or house-dove, of which great numbers were anciently

kept in Palestine. ‘‘ Who are these that dy as a cloud, and
as the doves to their windows ?’’—Isaiah Ix. 8

E

1380 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Is the use of guano after all, an agricultural
art of high antiquity? We will not trust
ourselves to answer. The following passage
from the Pictorial Bible gives a compendium
of all that has been mooted on the subject.
«The fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for
five pieces of silver. This was about half a
pint for 12s. 6d. There has been much diver-
sity of opinion about the ‘dove’s dung.’
Some of the rabbins inform us that it was
used for fuel. Josephus says, that it was
purchased for its salt. Some think it means
grain taken from the crops of pigeons, which
could of course get out of the beseigedtown and
feed in the open country ; many believe that it
was wanted for manure, and Bochait, foliowed
by most modern commentators, contends that,
the name though literally dove’s dung means an
article of vegetable food. As he observes, the
Arabs give the name of dove’s dung to a kind
of moss that grows on trees and strong ground,
and also to a sort. of pulse or pea which ap- ,
pears to have been very common in Judea, and
which may be the article here indicated. Large
quantities of it are parched and dried and
stored in magazines at Cairo and Damascus.
It is much used during journeys, and parti.

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. Tey

cularly by the great pilgrim caravan to Mecca ;
and if the conjecture be correct, it may be
supposed to have been among the provisions
stored up in the besieged city, and sold at the
extravagant price mentioned in the text. It is
clear that if dove’s dung be really intended, it
could not be used as an article of food, and
then we are thrown upon its use as manure.
This use is best exemplified in Persia. These
form such essential articles of food in some
warm climates, that vast quantities are con-
sumed, and in besieged towns persons who
have been rather delicately brought up have
been known to pine away and die for the
want of such essential provisions, even when
corn was abundant. On this point, Mr. Morier
observes, ‘the dung of doves is the dearest
raanure which the Persians use, and as they
apply it almost entirely to the rearing of
melons, it is probably on that account that
the melons of Ispahan are so much finer
than those of other cities. The revenue of a
pigeon-house is about a hundred tomauns
per annum ; and the great value of this dung
which rears a fruit that is indispensable to
the existence of the natives during the great
heats of summer, will probably throw some

E 2

132 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

light on that passage in Scripture, where in
the famine of Samaria, the fourth part of a
cab of dove’s dung was sold for five pieces of
silver.’ (Second Journey, p. 141.) We think
that the alternatives lie between this explana-
tion and that which Bochart has given,
although neither of them seems entirely free
from grounds of objection.”

If the cities of the east, such as Samaria,
resembled modern London and Paris, the
utility of manure for the growth of vegetables
would be out of all question, but such was not
the case. Detached houses, with surrounding
gardens,—large spaces, used for the rearing of
culinary vegetables—streets rather resembling
lanes than the streets of a European city of
the present day, and the whole surrounded
by a wall of brick, or mud and stones, with
towers at given distances, — such was, and
such is still a city of Western Asia; and when
the uncouth catapult, the sling, and the bow
were the only projectile weapons, these rude
fortifications were more difficult to be carried
than a town of modern Europe would now be
(Vauban himself having fortified it) by a few
thousand men with artillery, and the arts of
modern warfare,

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Group. 1383

We may here leave the common dovecote,
or farm-yard pigeon, and proceed to take a
brief survey of the principal varieties, some of
them of great antiquity, which naturalists
generally agree have resulted from long cul-
ture in a state of domestication. These
varieties are extremely numerous, and by
inter-crossing, others are from time to time
produced, to the delight or disappointment of
the fancier, as he may succeed or fail in the
accomplishment of his wishes.

The Carrier, or Horseman.—We do not
separate between these birds, because we know
of no difference between them: at all events,
if any originally existed, it has become lost,
and we believe the terms carrier and horse-
man are by most fanciers of the present day
used synonymously. The carrier exceeds most
other varieties of domestic pigeons in size;
and is remarkable for the elegance of its
shape. It is among pigeons, what the high-
bred racer is among horses, and has been long
celebrated for its rapidity of flight. It is
evidently of eastern origin, and was known to
the ancients.

The plumage of the carrier is close and firm,
and the quill feathers remarkably rigid; the

134 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

colour is black, blue, or dun,—birds of the
latter tint being highly prized, if perfect in
other qualities. The neck is long and slender,
the shoulders wide apart and strongly knit,
aud the breast muscular. The eye is animated,
with the iris of a fiery red, a rosette or wide
rose-like circle of white fungous skin, sur-
rounds the eye, and is even elevated (in
mature birds) above the level of the skull.
This circle, about the size of a shilling, should
be uniform,—free from irregularities, and well
developed. The beak is long,* straight, and
stout, especially at the base, which is sur-
rounded by a large mass of white fungous
skin, greatly elevated above the base of the
upper mandible, and advancing on the fore-
head. ‘This protuberance or wattle should be
regularly formed, rise boldly, and spread
broadly across the beak.+ The head is long
and narrow, and the skull should be flat or
even depressed on the top, and of contracted
breadth between the elevated rosettes. For
- perfect birds, great prices are demanded; and

* From an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half, along the
gape. _

+ The fungous excrescence is only a development of the soft

pulpy skin at the base of the upper mandible in the ordinary
pigeons, where the nostrils are situated,

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GRouP. 1385

we certainly think that of all the varieties of
the domestic pigeon none are so worthy of
attention by those whose inclination leads them
to the innocent amusement of cultivating fine
races of the feathered tribes reclaimed by man.

Dr. Kitto, in his Physical History of Pales-
tine, notices the carrier pigeon as being still
kept in Syria, and we know that from very
ancient times, it has been employed in the
east as a rapid and not to be intercepted con-
veyer of intelligence. Bochart has collected
numerous authorities on this subject, both in
Greece and Syria. The following passage is
from the pen of an accomplished zoologist in
the Penny Magazine. ‘In one of his odes
Anacreon has immortalized it, (the carrier
pigeon,) as the bearer of epistles. Taurosthenes
sent to his expectant father, who resided in
Aigina, the glad tidings of his success in the
olympic games, on the very day of his victory.
Pliny speaks of the communication kept up
between Hirtius and Decimus Brutus at the
siege of Mutina, (Modena.) ‘ What availed
Antony, the trench, and the watch of the .
besiegers,—what availed the nets stretched
across the river, while the messenger was cleay-
ing the air?’ The crusaders employed them,

136 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS-

and Joinville records an instance during the
crusade of Saint Louis. Tasso sings of one
that was attacked by a falcon, and defended
by Godfrey. It had a letter attached to its
neck, which letter Godfrey, of course, reads,
and is put in possession of all the secrets. In
the very same way, Ariosto makes the Castellan
di Damiatze spread the news of Orrilo’s death
all over Egypt. Sir John Maundeville, knight,
warrior, and pilgrim, who penetrated to the
borders of China, in the reigns of our second
and third Edward, thus writes :—‘ In that
contree and other contrees bezonde thei han a
custom, whan thei sohulle usen werre, and
whan men holden sege abouten cytee or
castelle, and they withinnen dur not senden
out messengers with lettere for lord to lord,
for to ask sokour, thei maken here letters and
binden them to the neck of a Colver, and
letten the Colver flee; and the Colveren ben
so taughte, that they fleen with the letters to
the very place that men wolde sende hem to.
For the colveres ben norysscht in tho places,
where thei ben sent to ; and thei senden hem
thus for to beren here letters. And the colveres
retournen azain where as thei ben norisscht,
and so they don commouuly,’ ”

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 137

We learn from Dr. Russell that “this
pigeon in former times was employed by the
English factory, to convey intelligence from
Scanderoon of the arrival of the company’s
ships in that port. The name of the ship,
the hour of her arrival, and whatever else
could be comprised in a small compass, being
written on a slip of paper, was secured in such
a manner under the pigeon’s wing as not to
impede its flight, and her feet were bathed in
vinegar, with a view to keep them cool and
prevent her being tempted by the sight of
water to alight, by which the journey might
have been prolonged, or the billet lost. The
practice has been in disuse many years, but I
have heard it asserted by an English gentle-
man, in whose time it still subsisted, that he
had known the pigeons perform the journey
(to Aleppo) in two hours and a half. The
messenger had a young brood at Aleppo, and
was sent down in an uncovered cage to
Scanderoon, from whence, as soon as set at
liberty she returned with all expedition to
her nest. It was usual at the season of the
arrival of the annual ships, to send pigeons
to be ready at the port, and by all accounts
if the bird remained absent above a fortnight

ES

138 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

she was apt to forget her young, and, there-
fore, not fit to be trusted. Upon inquiring
into the manner of training the pigeon for
this service, I was told by some that she was
at once sent down to Scanderoon in a cage ;
but I am rather inclined to believe what was
affirmed by others, that she was taught by
_ degrees to fly from shorter distances on the
Scanderoon road.”

It would appear that these pigeons, when
let fly from Scanderoon, instead of bending
their course towards the high mountains sur-
rounding the plain, mounted at once directly
up, soaring almost perpendicularly till out of
sight, as if to surmount at once the obstacles
intercepting a view of their place of destina-
tion. It is not often in the present day that
the carrier pigeon is employed on really im-
portant services, yet in the late sir D. Wilkie’s
picture of the siege of Saragossa, a carrier
pigeon is in the hands of one of the party,
either returning with news, or about to be
despatched. Doubtless, the great painter had
good authority for it.

It must not be supposed that this peculiar
breed of pigeon is exclusively fitted for the
purposes above described ;:any breed of good

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 139

powers of flight will do, but this bird, from
its swiftness on the wing, and its muscular
energy, is doubtless superior; nevertheless,
old birds, if not kept in active training, are
heavy, and disinclined to very long flights.
We once purchased a very young pair of black
carriers, and having kept them shut up for a
few weeks gave them their liberty; after several
circles high in the air, they started off in one
direction, straight as an arrow, till far out of
sight. We gave them up for lost, and having
paid a considerable sum for them, were not a
little annoyed. This happened about eleven,
a.m. At about four, p.m., while on the look
out we heard a whirring of wings, and imme-
diately the two birds settled on their dovecote,
and were eager for food and drink. Let it
be remembered that they had never been
previously at liberty, and yet after a voluntary
excursion of many miles, they returned with
unerring precision to their home; this was
repeated so often, till they began to breed,
that it gave us no concern respecting their
safety, the more especially as they flew above
gun-shot reach.

Is it by the eye that these birds travel
from long distances to their home? We

140 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

cannot doubt it. Hence, if very long distances
are to be achieved, training is requisite; they
must be accustomed by a graduated series of
removals, to at least the greater part of the
road; and even then, if a fog obscures their
way-marks, they are apt to wander and be
lost. ;
Occasionally we hear of trials of the power
of the pigeon (we know not whether the birds
are always carriers or not) which are not a
little surprising. A given number of birds
for example will be turned off in some town in
Holland, Belgium, or France, destined for
London, or vice versd; we read of the safe
‘arrival of at least the greater number, and of
the short space of time in which the journey
is accomplished. In such cases, two or three
practised birds to take the lead will, no doubt,
prove good guides to the rest, which, in their
turn, having safely arrived, will guide others.
Short distances, however, will easily be per-
formed without much training. Our theory
is as follows: a carrier pigeon is taken toa
distance, say a hundred miles from home,
it is turned loose, it mounts to a great eleva-
tion, and performs a series of circles, wider
and wider still. At home, it has performed

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Grour. 141

the same. Now from any part of the circle,
let it perceive an object, which while per-
forming its circles at home, has caught its eye,
it has at once a clue to the right direction ;
that object attained, a succession of others
familiar to it are rapidly passed, till its home
greets its keen and long-surveying powers of
vision.

This idea struck us forcibly when viewing
the prospect from Mont Cassel, near St. Omer.
Though this conical mount, once a Roman
military occupation, is of no very great eleva-
tion, we saw an amphitheatre around us of
from fifty to sixty miles in nearly every direc-
tion, and across the Manche the white cliffs of
the Kentish coast. If a long-sighted pigeon
had soared above us, say at the elevation of
one mile (its home being in London) we feel
assured that its old familiar land-marks would
have been at once discerned by it, and have
been guide-posts, to direct it in its homeward
flight.

Audubon speaking of the passenger pigeon
of North America, says that specimens have
been killed in the neighbourhood of New York,
with their crops full of rice, which must have
been collected in the fields of Georgia and

142 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Carolina, those districts being the nearest, in
which they could have collected a supply of
that grain. The swiftness of the carrier
pigeon is equal to that of the passenger
pigeon, and is very great, but then much time
is lost while it mounts and makes its circles of
observation, before it starts fairly on its
course. Perhaps the average rapidity is fifty
or sixty miles an hour; but it can wing its
way still more expeditiously, when eager to
regain its home, and no very great difficulties
have to be encountered. M. Antoine informs
us that a gentleman residing in Cologne,
called by business to Paris, laid a considerable
wager that he would give information to his
friends of his safe arrival, within three hours.
The distance is a hundred leagues; the ac-
complishment of the object seemed impossible,
and the wager was at once accepted. He had
brought from Cologne two carrier pigeons,
which had nestlings, and arriving at Paris at
ten in the morning, he tied a letter to each
bird and despatched them both at eleven
precisely. One of these pigeons arrived at
Cologne at five minutes past one o’clock, and
in nine minutes afterwards the other came in;
hence, supposing their flight to have been

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Grour. 148

direct from an elevation rapidly attained, it
could not have been much below the ratio of
a hundred and forty or fifty miles an hour.
This was, indeed, an extraordinary instance of
speed, to which we do not know a parallel,
unless Montagu be correct, who estimates the
flight of the Peregrine falcon, when pursuing
its quarry, at the rate of one hundred and fifty
miles an hour.

Tue Dracoon, or Dracon.—This variety
presents, in an inferior degree, the characters
of the carrier, and appears to be a cross breed
between that variety, and the tumbler or ordi-
nary dove-cote runt. It is smaller and lighter
in contour than the earrier, with the carun-
culated skin at the base of the beak and
around the eyes less developed, but with the
general figure similar. It is a bird of great
powers of flight, but though rapid for short
distances, it wants the power of muscular
endurance requisite for the swift accomplish-
ment of very long journeys.

Tue Pourer.—This large pigeon, formerly
highly valued by fanciers, and bred with much
care, and no little expense, is originally the
product of a cross between the dragoon and
the old Dutch cropper, so called from the

144 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

development of its crop; but which, in form
and proportions, had little to recommend it.
All pigeons are capable of inflating their crop
with air, and thus of distending it. In the
pouter, the crop is remarkably capacious, and,
when inflated, assumes an almost globular
form, extending from the under mandible to
the top of the chest. This vast inflation of
the crop does not, in our eyes, add anything
to the beauty of the bird, as it produces an
appearance of distortion, while the bird in
order to carry it with ease is obliged to carry
itself upright, with the legs straight and stiff,
in a line with the erect body. Some think
this gives the bird a majestic air, but it seems
to us to be a stiff unnatural strut. The
pouter often measures eighteen inches in
length from the point of the beak to the end
of the tail; the legs, or tarsi, are long and
covered with fine white down; the back is
concave, and the tail large. The general
colours are blue, rufous, or fawn, regularly
pied with white; we have seen many of a pure
white, but these are not preferred. In the
arrangement of the markings, and in various
minor details, pigeon fanciers find much to
interest themselves; to us they appear un-

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GRouP. 145

worthy of serious attention. Two varieties
of the pouter are respectively termed the
Parisian pouter and the uploper; but of these
we do not know that we have ever seen any
specimens. ‘The former is beautifully mottled
and variegated.

Tuer Bars.—The name of this variety seems
to indicate that it was originally brought
from the north of Africa. It is a bird of re-
markable appearance ; there is a small carun-
culated wattle at the base of the beak, which
latter is short and thick, and a rather large
naked circle of bright red spongy skin sur-
rounds the eye; a short crest of prettily
circled feathers generally ornaments the back
of the head. The plumage is of a uniform
black, occasionally dun.

Tue Fan-rart.—Among the more curious
varieties of the domestic pigeon must be
enumerated the fan-tail or broad-tailed shaker.
These appellations it acquires from the pecu-
liarity of its tail, which is carried in a man-
ner very similar to that of a common hen, but
rather more expanded. In proportion to the
size of the bird, it is also more ample, being
composed of four and twenty feathers, and, in
some cases, even six and thirty, instead of the

146 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

ordinary number, twelve. This development
of supernumerary tail feathers is very remark-
able, and would alone give the bird a strange
aspect ; but besides this, it has the habit of
throwing back its slender delicate neck till
the head almost touches the tail, while, at the
same time, the neck quivers with a tremulous
motion. In this attitude, the chest is thrown
forward, and the wings droop, while the bird
seems to exult in the display. The beak is
very short, the head small, and the plumage
generally of a pure snowy white. Pied birds
are not .in estimation. There is a variety
called the narrow-tailed shaker, which appears’
to us to be nothing more than a cross between
the fan-tail and some common breed. Neither
of these birds have much power of flight.

Tue Jacospine, on Carper.—This pretty
little variety is remarkable for the develop-
ment, silkiness, and reversion of the plumes of
the back and sides of the neck, which are so
disposed as to form a sort of full hood or muff
in which the head is almost buried. The head
is small, the beak short, the iris of the eye of
a clear pearl colour. The plumage varies in
colour, but fawn-yellow birds are preferred :
the head, the quill-feathers, and the tail, are

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON Group. 147

white. In powers of flight the jacobine is
very inferior, but is much valued for its beauty.
There are two allied varieties, the ruff and the
capuchin, neither of which, however, are so
much esteemed as the jacobine, the general
characters of which they exhibit, but in an
inferior degree.

Tue Tursit.—This is a small pigeon, re-
markable for a frill on the top of the chest,
consisting of a tuft of feathers, which opens
and spreads both ways laterally with a curl;
this is termed a ‘“purle.’” The head is
small, the beak short, the colour various, but
the under parts and quill feathers are usually
white, An allied variety is called the owl,
from the crookedness of its beak, which is
short, stout, and curved. Its chest is frilled.

Tur Nun.—This pigeon is very pretty, and
much admired from the contrast of its mark-
ings. The general plumage is white, with the
exception of the head, quill feathers and tail,
which are yellow, blue, or black; the latter the
most preferred. On the top of the coloured
head, is a white tuft of carded feathers, which,
from a fancied resemblance to a veil, has
obtained for this variety its appellation. The
beak is small, the iris pearl-white. A variety

148 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

called the helmet is closely allied to the pre-
ceding, but instead of a full tuft or hood on
the head, has a crest somewhat resembling
that of a helmet. In other respects, there is
no difference, except, perhaps, that the latter
is rather the largest bird.

Ture Trumpeter.—This variety is not often
seen. It has a tuft on the back of the head,
and another springing above the base of the
beak over the forehead; the legs and toes are
feathered. The plumage is generally mottled.
Its cooing in the spring is loud and harsh,
whence it has obtained the name of trumpeter.

Tue Tumsier.—The tumbler is a small
pigeon, much esteemed for the peculiarity of
its flight, and when a flock is on the wing, the
sight is not uninteresting. The title of tum-
bler is given in allusion to the backward sum-
mersets, often several times repeated, which
these birds make in the air, but whether from
amusement, or from some cause or other they
become overbalanced, is not very clear; we
have observed that when they prepare to alight,
these somersets are most frequently repeated,
and as it would seem, hinder the bird for some
time from accomplishing its object. Perhaps,
however, this is all in playfulness, for the

THE COLUMBINE, OR PIGEON GROUP. 149

tumbler is a bird of great powers of flight, and
mounts to such an elevation, as sometimes to
be scarcely visible; it can also continue on the
wing for several hours together, a circumstance
which gives it value in the eyes of many, who
delight to watch the circular movements of a
flock of these birds, in close array, soaring at a
vast altitude. ;

The tumbler pigeon varies in colour, whence
have arisen various distinctive appellations, as
bald-headed tumblers, the head being white ;
and bearded tumblers either blue or black, with
a white moustache or stripe, extending from
the base of the beak. The head is small and
round, the beak short, and spine-shaped, the
iris a clear pearl-white, the chest full and broad,
the neck rather short, but slender, and the
general contour compact. This variety is kept
in great abundance in London.

Tae Atmonp or Ermine Tumsier.—This
variety, though derived from the ordinary
tumbler, is not trained to flight, but is kept
for its beauty, and the rich and varied admix-
ture of its colours. It is much less than the
common tumbler in size, and the beak and
head are remarkably small; the plumage is
variegated ; yellow, black, white and brown,

150 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

or gray, being intermingled in streaks or
dashes. It is not until after several moults,
that the perfect colours are attained.

The above list of varieties of the domestic
pigeon contains all of any note; several others,
indeed, might be enumerated, as the Leghorn,
the Spanish, and the Friesland Runt, (the
latter having all its feathers reverted,) the
Lace, the Finniken, the Spot, ete., but they are
seldom to be seen, nor is any value attached to
them.

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL GROUP.

In the natatorial group, or order, we are
presented with a vast assemblage of birds, more
or less decidedly constructed for aquatic habits,
and the more so the more exclusively they tenant
the waters of the sea, inlets along coasts, the
mouths of wide rivers and extensive lakes.
Some, indeed, are so exclusively formed for
passing the period of their active existence, and
for pursuing their prey in the water, that on
the ground their movements are embarrassed
and awkward in the extreme, and, in a few, the
powers of flight are utterly abrogated. We are
now pointing to extreme cases on the one part,

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL GROUP. 151

for there are others in which the powers of
flight are wonderful, the water serving only as
areservoir of food, which is snatched on or near
its surface, and as an occasional resting place,
the bird floating buoyantly, till it soars into the
air. As examples, we may adduce the terns,
the gulls, the albatross, the petrels, etc., birds
thickly plumed, and which, in pursuit of their
prey, make only slight plunges into the sea,
or skim it off from the rolling waves, and sel-
dom settle, except for a few minutes.

Between these extreme links in the chain’
there are others of intermediate position, and
among them is the family comprising ducks,
swans, and geese.

We shall not attempt to enter into an ana-
lysis of the numerous sub-divisions, of this
extensive family, (termed Anatide,) but only
offer a few general observations.

In the ducks, swans, and geese, the body
is more or less boat-shaped, and covered with
dense plumage, there being an under-layer of
down next the skin. The feathers repel the
water, which runs off them. ‘The legs are
placed considerably backwards, so as to render
the support of the anterior part of the body
apparently laborious, and from this cause and

152 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

the contour of the limbs, their gait on the
ground is waddling. The three anterior toes
are united by webs, but the posterior toe is
free, yet often lobated, or paddle-shaped. The
bill is large, and more or less depressed, some-
times very broad; both mandibles are covered
with a sort of leathery skin abundantly sup-
plied by nerves of touch; at the base of the
upper mandible there is a sort of cere, (in
which the nostrils are placed,) in some more
extensive than in others, and at the tip of
the upper mandible is a sort of flat incurved
hard nail, (called dertrum.) Along the edges
of each mandibie extends a series of laminated
processes, sometimes remarkably developed and
in close array, these serve as strainers, enabling
the bird to sift the ooze or mud through the
beak, and retain worms, insects, and vegetable
matters. The tongue is large, fleshy, sensitive,
and furnished along its edges with filamentous
pectinations, which aid the beak in the reten-
tion of food. The eyes are defended by a
strong membrana nictitans, and both sight and
hearing are acute. The voice is hoarse, harsh,
and clanging: in many species, there is a sort
of osseous drum at the lower portion of the
windpipe, in some there are certain dilatations,

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 153

and in others the windpipe makes singular
loops or flexures before entering the cavity of
the chest to merge into the lungs.

In a state of nature, the males and females
pair, the young are hatched, covered with
down, and soon take to the water under the
guidance of their parents. With respect to
food, it is very various; some appear to be ©
herbivorous, others feed equally upon animal
and vegetable substances, and greedily devour
slugs, caterpillars, and aquatic insects. Others
live on crabs, and marine shellfish, which they
dive with great skill to obtain.

Though these birds are aquatic in their
habits, and swim well, yet some are much
more so than others; the goose, which grazes
on corn lands and fields, is far less aquatic
than the wild or even tame duck, and resorts
to the water principally for safety. The cere-
opsis goose of Australia is still more decidedly
terrestrial. On the other hand, some species,
as the New Holland musk duck, the steamer,
or racehorse duck of the Falkland isles, and
others, are as aquatic as the divers (Colymbus.)

Most, if not all the anatidee, in the northern
hemisphere at least, are migratory, and asso-
ciated in flocks perform at due times northward.

154 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

and southward migrations, the former taking
place on the early breaking up of winter, when
they revisit their old breeding haunts, the
latter in autumn, when the cold of the north-
ern regions commences. In temperate lati-
tudes, however, like our island,many home-bred
water-fowl not only remain during the winter, /
but are joined by northern visitors. During
flight, they assume a definite order, proceeding
either in single file, or in the form of a triangle,
the leader occasionally changing places with
others. Even when traversing the ground
they observe a degree of order in the line of
their march.

Most species incubate on the ground, but
some in the holes of trees or on the broad flat
top of large old pollards, and in situations of a
similar character. Under these circumstances
the parents convey the young to the water in
their beak. The summer, or wood duck, of
America, (anas sponsa,) pursues this singular
plan; and even the common wild duck ocea-
sionally. Certain species, as the anas arborea,
not only nestle but habitually perch in trees.

Tur Domestic Ducx.—This species belongs
to the genus anas as restricted by modern
naturalists, the male being characterised (at

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group, 155

certain seasons) by curled feathers in the
upper tail coverts. The wild origin of our
domestic duck, is unquestionably the well-
known species, anas boschas, usually termed
the mallard, and which appears to be generally
distributed throughout the temperate and
colder regions of Europe, Asia, and North
America. The mallard is smaller than the
tame duck, of a lighter and more graceful
figure, and much more quick, observant, and
prompt in its actions. In the more northern
regions, it is decidedly migratory.

The wild duck pairs early in March, some-
times in the latter part of February, but the
male deserts his mate, when the duty of incu-
bation commences, leaving the care of the eggs
and young entirely to the female. Hence in
the month of May it is not uncommon to see
small flocks composed exclusively of males,
whose mates are fostering their brood. Wilson
says that both parents take charge of their
young, but this is an error; the female, only,
rears them, as was first, we believe, pointed
out by Mr. Selby. It is in May, moreover,
that the male begins to change his colours,
losing the curled tail feathers, and the glossy
green of the neck, and assuming a plain dress,

156° ° OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

approximating to that of the female ;* nor is
it until the autumnal moult, that he recovers
his brilliant tints and fine pencilling. In
domestic birds, this change does not occur, or
only very partially.

The nest of the wild duck is composed of
dried rushes, grass, and coarse stalks, and is
usually placed on the ground under the covert
of brushwood, or amidst a bower of sheltering
herbage, not at any great distance from the
water. Occasionally, however, other sites
have been selected.

When her nest is approached, the wild duck,
like the lapwing, puts various artifices in
practice in order to draw off the intruder: she
flutters along as if lamed, pretends to escape
seizure with difficulty, when having succeeded
in her object, she rapidly leaves her astonished
pursuer. On quitting her nest, during incu-
bation, for a supply of food and water, she
usually covers the eggs with down and dry
herbage, no doubt in order to conceal them
from observation, and, perhaps, also to pre-
serve their temperature. They vary from ten

* Mr. Selby regards it as an actual change of colour in
the feathers, and not the result of a change of plumage or
moult.

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Grove. 157

to fourteen in number, and are of a bluish
white colour.

The food of the wild duck consists of grain
and vegetable matters, slugs, aquatic insects,
tadpoles, the fry of fishes, and other aliment.
A large bony drum is placed at the lower
portion of the windpipe of the male, (both
. wild and tame,) just within the chest.

The domestic duck exceeds the wild bird in
size, but is neither so alert nor graceful, and
domestication has deprived it of a large portion
of its original instincts. Instead of pairing
with one mate, the male, as may be seen, leads
his troop of females, steering proudly at their
head, but, unlike the gallant chanticleer, he
neither defends them, nor calls them to par-
take of any delicacy. The domestic duck
varies considerably in size, and the colour of
the plumage ; and many breeds are particularly
noted. Among these is the large white
Aylesbury breed, which is prevalent in Buck-
inghamshire, where the rearing of ducks for
the markets constitutes at least a part of the
business of many cottagers. The Rhone duck, -
another noted breed, is large, with a dark-
coloured plumage, and celebrated for the good-
ness and flavour of its flesh,

158 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

The tame duck often lays more eggs than
she can well cover during incubation, but she
should never be allowed to sit on more than
twelve or fourteen. It 1s a common practice

to put duck eggs under common hens, nor do.

the latter when the ducklings are hatched
distinguish between them and their natural
brood. The agitation of the poor hen when
her web-footed charge betake themselves to
the water, into which, instinct-guided, they
fearlessly plunge, cannot have escaped the
observation of every reader. That the hen
should foster the ducklings she has hatched is
not more strange than that the hedge-sparrow
or wagtail should rear the young cuckoo, to
the destruction of their own young; yet in
some instances the hen distinguishes a strange
nestling. Some years since we placed a nest-
ling green linnet under a hen, brooding over
her just hatched progeny: she at once rejected
it with anger, and if not prevented would
have killed it. Was this an accidental occur-
rence, or would it always on trial occur?
Though the young ducklings take early to
the Water, it is better that they should gain a
little strength before they be allowed to ven-
ture into ponds or rivers; a shallow vessel of

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL GRour. 159

water filled to the brim and sunk in the
ground will suffice for the first week or ten
days, and this rule is more especially to be
adhered to when they are under the care of a
common hen, which cannot follow them into the
pond, and the calls of which when there they
pay little or no regard to. Rats, weasels, pike,
and eels, are formidable foes to ducklings ;
we have known entire broods destroyed by the
former, which having their burrows in a steep
bank around a sequestered pond, it was found
impossible to extirpate. Chickens which tra-
verse the fields and farmyard, and are at all
times more exposed to observation escape
many dangers that assail ducklings. These
accidents excepted, ducklings are easily reared ;
they soon pick up worms, slugs, and insects,
and may at first be fed on meal of any kind
mixed with boiled potatoes crushed fine. In
their selection of food they exhibit no fas-
tidiousness, and require neither penning up
nor craniming, to acquire plumpness. It has
been well observed that they eat as if they
considered it their duty to prepare themselves
for the table, and give no trouble about it.

To a kitchen-garden, in the autumn or
summer, when they can do no mischief by

160 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

devouring delicate salads and young sprouting
vegetables, a troop of ducks does good service.
They are industrious searchers of snails and
slugs, wood-lce and millepedes, and gobble
them up with great avidity. On snails and
slugs they will get positively fat.

Ducks—and the same observation applies to
geese—should have their own exclusive dor-
mitories. It is a bad plan to put them into
the roosting place of fowls ; they should have
their own chamber. In the gardens of the
Zoological Society, the waterfowl have boxes,
or wooden huts, placed around the margin of
their pond, or on little islands in it. The plan
answers excellently, but a wire fence forming
an inclosure, so as to prevent the ingress of
rats and weasels, is, in this case, necessary ;
we do not, however, pretend to recommend the
adoption of it under ordinary circumstances.

There are few countries in which ducks are
kept in such numbers as in China; they are
there hatched by means of artificial incubation.
Numerous possessors of great flocks of these
birds keep them in boats on the Canton river,
and turn them out at stated times along the
barks to feed. They are singularly trained ;
when their keeper wishes to call them into the

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 161

boat, which communicates with the bank by
means of a narrow board, he makes a signal
eall, and all the ducks rush simultaneously
forward; the first which gains the boat is
ordinarily rewarded with a handful of rice,
but the last undergoes a smart chastisement ;
of this the birds from repetition are well aware,
and hence, every one struggles to get before
his neighbour, partly incited by hope, but more
by fear. Of course, one must be the last, but
it knows what awaits it.

In Persia, the duck and goose’ are seldom
kept, nor are these birds in any request for the
table; in fact, it would seem that they are sel-
dom eaten.

Among the ancient Egyptians, ducks were
in high request, and representations of these
birds were favourite subjects for their paint-
ings. We learn from Herodotus that salted
ducks were eaten without any other cooking,
and the mode of pickling them is seen in
pictures from Thebes ; in one of these, two men
are seen ‘‘ carrying the ducks on their shoul-
ders, and a little further, a man putting them
into earthern vessels, formed like Roman
amphoree, probably containing salt or pickle.
In the extreme left of the picture are two men

P

162 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS,

seated, one of whom seems as if he were rub-
bing something into a duck; one hand is
closed, as it would be if it were full of salt,
and with the other he is raising one of the
wings apparently for the purpose of rubbing
in the salt. The other figure appears to be
plucking the feathers off the neck of a duck, but
Roselini describes him as sprinkling a handful
of salt upon it.” In the British Museum,
among the provisions found in a tomb in Egypt,
are two birds, of course very dry and shriyelled,
which appear to us to be young ducks, or teal,
or at least small water-fowl of some species.

Whether ducks, geese, or other waterfowl
were used as food by the ancient Hebrews,
does not appear from any passage in the
Scriptures. They do not seem to have been
interdicted, and as the Hebrews must have
witnessed the extensive consumption of these
birds while sojourning in Egypt, especially
ducks and geese, they may, perhaps, have
adopted their use ; nevertheless, we suspect
that, influenced by their feelings of aversion
with respect to Hgyptian rites and ceremonies,
the Hebrews may have regarded the duck and
goose with the same disgust as they did the
dog, which was a fayourite in Egypt,

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 163

In modern Egypt and Syria, though wild
water-fowl are abundant, still neither tame
ducks nor geese are often to be seen, and the-
same observation applies to other parts of
western Asia. The reason is that the Moslems
very rarely eat these birds, whether tame or
wild, while on the contrary the common fowl
is reared in vast abundance.

We must not forget that in Europe, besides
the ordinary tame duck, we have in our farm
yards a very distinct species, namely, the musk,
or as it is often erroneously called the Muscovy
duck,* (Anas moschata.) It is the Canard
musqué of Buffon, and deserves the title from
the strong scent of musk which it exhales.

This species will inter-breed with the com-
mon duck, but we believe the progeny are
not fertile. The musk duck greatly exceeds
the ordinary kind in size, and, moreover,
differs in the colours and character of the
plumage, in general contour, and the form.
of the head. The general colour is glossy
blue-black, varied more or less with white ;
the head is crested, and a space of naked

* Ray says, ‘‘Muscovy duck, not because it comes from
Muscovy, but because it exhales a somewhat powerful odour of
musk ;” but surely the word might be better chosen,

F2

164 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

scarlet skin, more or less clouded with violet,
surrounds the eye, continued from scarlet
caruncles on the base of the beak ; the top of
the head is crested ; the feathers of the body
are larger, more lax, softer, and less closely
compacted together than in the common duck,
and seem to indicate less aquatic habits. The
male far surpasses the female in size; there
are no curled feathers in his tail.

In habits, the musk-duck presents nothing
very different from the other species, excepting
that the male is fierce and quarrelsome ; when
enraged, its eyes and demeanour betray its
violent emotions, it depresses its head, and
utters hoarse notes in a deep tone. The flesh
of this species, and also of the mixed breed, is
said to be very good, but we have never
tasted it.

With respect to the wild origin of the musk
duck little seems to be definitely known, nor is
it ascertained at what precise period it came
into Europe. Most accounts refer to South
America as its native country. Ray, in whose
time it was known as a domestic bird in Eng-
land, terms it 4nas sylvestris Braziliensis, the
wood duck of Brazil. Linnzeus, in his Fauna
Suecica, says, “It is reared on the farms of

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Grour. 165

the gentry, but it is not an indigenous bird in ~
Sweden.” Marcgrave states the musk duck
to be a native of Brazil and Guiana, and terms
it Anas sylvestris, magnitudine anseris—a
wood-duck of the size of a goose.

Buffon says that these birds were introduced
into France in the time of Belon, about 1540,
who termed them Canes de Guinée.

Tue Domestic Goosr.—The goose, like the
duck, has been domesticated from time im-
memorial ; but its wild origin appears to be
clearly ascertained. We may commence the
history of this species by observing, that four
European species of wild goose, closely allied
to each other, are known to naturalists ;
namely,—the white-fronted goose,* (Anser
erythropus—Fleming ; 4. albifrons—Bechst. ;)
the bean goose, (Anser ferus — Flem.; A.
segetum—Steph. ;) the pink-foot goose, (dn-
ser pheenicopus—Bartlett, in Proc. (Zool. Soc.
1839, p. 2;) and the grey-lag wild goose,
(Anser palustris —Flem.; Anser cinereus,
Meyer.) Of these, the first three are only
periodical visitants to our island, and the
temperate parts of Europe, and western Asia,
arriving on the approach of winter, and retiring

* This species is also a natiye of North America.

166 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

to the high northern latitudes to breed on the
return of spring. But the grey-lag wild goose,
which is the origin of our domestic race, was
once a permanent resident in our island, and
bred in great numbers, in the fenny counties.
From the causes alluded to in our notice of the
wild duck, it is now entirely banished from its
former haunts, and though a few small flocks
visit our island during the winter, it is far
more rarely to be met with, than either of the
three preceding winter visitants.

Though partially migratory, the gyrey-lag
cannot be considered as a high northern bird,
for, according to M. Temminck, it seldom
advances much beyond the fifty-third degree of ~
north latitude, its geographical distribution
extending over the central and eastern parts of
Europe, northern Asia, and some parts of
western Africa, where it haunts marshes, lakes,
and the borders of inland seas.

Mr. Gould, in his birds of Europe, says,
“The grey-lag is known to inhabit all the
extensive marshy districts, throughout the
temperate portions of Europe generally, its
range northward not extending beyond the
fifty-third degree of latitude, while southwards
it extends to the northern portions of Africa

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Grour. 167

eastwardly to Persia, and, we believe, is gene-
rally dispersed over Asia Minor.”

The grey-lag exceeds the other species which
we have alluded to, in size, and is sometimes
found to weigh ten pounds; the general plu-
mage is cinereous; the shoulders and rump,
light grey; breast and belly, white, sometimes
spotted with black; the bill, two and-a-half
inches long ; more robust, deeper, broader, and
the laminze much more developed than in the
bean goose, and of a dull yellow, inclining to
flesh colour towards the nail, which is white;
in summer, the bill assumes a redder tint ; legs
and feet, pale flesh colour; wings, when
closed, even with the end of the tail. The
young of this species are darker than the
adults, but the grey upon the shoulders and
rump, the form of the bill, and colour of the
legs and feet, will always distinguish them
from the young of any of the other species.

The domestic goose is a bird of no little
importance. It not only figures with accept-
ance at the table, but its feathers are of great
commercial value, and for the sake of them
alone, thousands are kept in different counties,
in order to meet, in some measure, the demands
of the market, which nevertheless receives

168 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

supplies from foreign parts. The feathers of
the body properly dressed and sorted are in
great demand, as all know, for beds, cushions,
pillows, ete. The quill feathers furnish us with
a simple instrument, efficient for good or for
evil, as he in whose hands it is may use it.

Among the ancient Britons, the goose,
though probably kept in a tame state, was
not eaten, as it would appear, from supersti-
tious motives. On the occupation of this
island by the Romans, these Druidical obsery-
ances by degrees vanished, and we may well
believe that when Britain became (with the
exception of its extreme north) a Roman
province, neither fowls, hares, nor geese
were exempted from death by the hands of
the obdurate cook, the ‘‘ sevus coquus,” as
Martial calls him.

Of the history of the goose in the Saxon
era we can collect but little; even then, as
it would seem, it was doomed to bleed at
Michaelmas, and to the present day is Michael-
mas a fatal time for geese. A roast goose upon
the table on that day is a dish most undoubt-
edly ‘more majorum.” Nor is the plucking
of live geese (a custom perhaps of Roman
introduction) of less antiquity, as their quill

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL GRouP. 169

feathers, if pens were then but in small request,
were in perpetual demand for arrows and
cross-bow bolts.

Though the domestic goose is very generally
kept by farmers and cottagers throughout
our island, yet, in particular counties, more
attention is paid to the management of large
flocks of these birds, with an express view to
profit, than in others. Lincolnshire, for ex-
ample, has been long celebrated for the multi-
tudes of geese kept in the fenny districts. In
Somersetshire, and also in some parts of Scot-
land, they are reared in great numbers. In
Lincolnshire, (in Pennant’s,) a single person
frequently possessed a thousand adult geese,
each of which on an average reared seven gos-
lings, so that in the course of the season his
stock amounted to eight thousand. The same
observations will, more or less, apply to other
parts of the country in the present day. In
March, when the young geese are strong
enough to travel, large flocks are driven by
slow degrees from great distances to London,
where they meet ready purchasers, great num-
bers being brought up by professional feeders
of poultry, who fatten them for the poulterer,
or salesman, Oats, oatmeal, peas, milk, ete.,

F3

170 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

constitute the fattening diet on which they are
fed, and in a short time they are ready, as
green geese, for the market ; and are in high
request, though for ourselves we prefer a
stubble-fed goose in autumn in good condition,
but not (as too often is seen in the London
poulterers’) overladen with oily fat. It is
however, to the farmer, and not the great
feeder of these birds, that we must look for a
really stubble-fed goose at Michaelmas.

The following extract from the Penny
Cyclopzedia, will convey a good idea of the
mode in which poultry are managed by the
feeders for the London markets.

‘Cleanliness, punctuality, and regularity
prevail; the business is conducted as it were
by machinery, rivalling the vibrations of the
pendulum in uniformity of movement. The
grand object of preparing not only geese, but
poultry in general, for market, in as short a
time as possible, is effected solely by paying
unremitting attention to their wants,—in keep-
ing them thoroughly clean, in supplying them
with proper food, (dry, soft, and green, ) water,
exercise-ground, ete. On arriving at the feeders,
they are classed according to condition, ete. ;
they soon become reconciled to their new

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 171

abode and to each other. They are fed three
times a day; and it is truly astonishing how
soon they acquire the knowledge of the pre-
cise time, marching from the exercise-ground
to the pens, like soldiers, in close column.
Goslings, or young geese, come to hand gene-
rally about the month of March, after which a
constant and regular supply arrives weekly
throughout the season. At first, they are fed
on soft meat, consisting of prime barley or
oatmeal, afterwards on dry corn. An idea
prevails with many, that any sort of corn will
do for poultry, this is a grand mistake. Those
who feed largely know better, and invariably
make it a rule to buy the best. The Messrs.
_ Boyce of Stratford, whose pens are capable of
holding the extraordinary number of four
thousand geese, independent of ducks, turkeys,
ete., consume twenty coombs of oats daily,
exclusive of other food.” Who, not acquainted
with the great metropolis, would suspect that
a commercial concern, such as. that noticed
above, connected merely with the production
of poultry for the markets, should exist, in-
volving, as it must do, no small amount of
capital and labour ?*

® The following paragraph appeared in several of the papers.

172 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Many small farmers and cottagers are in the
habit of keeping flocks of geese on commons,
and where the pasturage is not rendered bare
by sheep, as is too often the case, the plan is
advantageous ; but even when the pasturage is
good, a supply of oats or barley, morning and
evening, should be allowed. Where the pas-
turage is bad, the old geese become thin and
debilitated; and the young broods never
thrive, and too often perish from want of
sufficient nutriment. In such a plan of star-
yation, arising either from neglect, or a sordid
disposition, there is not only abominable
cruelty, but a positive loss of profit.

We are not among those who revolt at the
quick, and therefore merciful, destruction of
animals given to us by Almighty Providence
as needful and salutary food; but we abhor
barbarity. In old times, and also in modern
days on the continent, a dreadful system of
torturing geese has prevailed, with no other
object than to produce a diseased enlargement
of the liver, for the preparation of a dish, or
rather pdté, said by epicures to be of exquisite

Mr. Robert Fuller, a poulterer, of Boston, killed last week for
the London Christmas market, 2400 geese, 1000 ducks, 500
turkeys, which altogether weighed upwards of twenty tons.—
Lincolnshire Chronicle,” December, 1845,

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 178

flavour. This paté (pdté de foie gras) is in
great request in France. The wretched geese
are fastened, nailed by the feet to a board,
placed before a hot fire, crammed with food,
and supplied with drink. In this situation
they pine, fever wastes away their flesh, but
the liver becomes enormously swollen ; and this
is the great desideratum.* Such it was also
with the Roman epicures of ancient times.
But a subject so repulsive need not detain us,
yet, alas! we leave it but to notice a practice
equally horrible, and we think but little less
justifiable ; we allude to the plucking of live
geese, practised in various places where these
birds are kept for the profit, both of flesh and
clothing, as sheep are by the grazier. Sheep,
however, are mercifully sheared.

According to Pennant, “geese are plucked
five times in the year; the first plucking is at
Lady-day, for feathers and quills, and the
same is renewed four times more between that
and Michaelmas for feathers only. The old
geese quietly submit to the operation, but the
young ones are very noisy and unruly. I once

* Ducks are treated in a similar manner. Geese are reared in
Languedoc and Alsace; ducks in Lower Normandy and Langue-
doc. The duck’s liver-pies of Toulouse, and the goose-liver pies
of Strasburg, are highly celebrated.

174 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

saw this performed, and observed that goslings
of six weeks old were not spared, for their
tails were plucked, as I was told, to habituate
them early to what they are to come to. If
the season prove cold, numbers of the geese
die by this barbarous custom. When the
flocks are numerous, about ten pluckers are
employed, each with a coarse apron up to his
chin. Vast numbers of geese are driven annu-
ally to London, to supply the markets ; among
them are all the superannuated geese and
ganders, which, by a long course of plucking,
prove uncommonly tough and dry. ‘The fea-
thers are a considerable article of commerce ;
those from Somersetshire are esteemed the
best, and those from Ireland the worst.”’
Times have greatly changed since Pennant
wrote, and worthless geese find but little ac-
ceptance in the London markets; but the
system of plucking, which he describes as he
saw it practised in Scotland, is still continued,
and we believe on very nearly the same plan,
in many places. The annual mortality among
geese where this system prevails, as Lincoln-
shire and Ireland, is very great, and the birds
that live through several operations, become
thin, feverish, and scarcely fit, or rather posi-

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL GRouP. 178

tively unfit, to eat. The excuse for this bar-
barity is that the feathers thus obtained are
superior in elasticity to these plucked from
the dead bird; besides which a live bird will
constantly renew its plumage to undergo re-
peated strippings, and thus bring increase of
profit, without the necessary destruction of
the sufferer.

Both the feathers and quills of the goose
have to undergo a certain preparation, in order
to render them fit for the sale of the uphol-
sterer or stationer. By various processes and
by being subjected to heat, the vascular mem-
brane adherent to the barrel, both: externally
and internally, becomes dried up and shrivelled,
and all fatty, or oleaginous matter is removed.

The management of geese in ancient Italy
appears to have differed but little from that
practised in modern France and England;
nor—though according to Livy, a flock of
geese by their loud outcries saved the Roman
capitol from the Gauls, when the watch dogs
slept—did the Romans treat their geese very
mercifully. It is true that annually, on the
return of that memorable day, a silver goose
was carried through the city in solemn pro-
cession, and dogs were sacrificed, and that

176 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

consecrated geese were kept in the temple of
Juno, and were well lodged and fed, still
swollen and diseased geese livers were in great
request ; and geese were plucked alive, for their
feathers were of as much use as in the present
day; those of the white birds being especially
valuable. In some places the plucking occurred
twice in the year. Great numbers of geese were
at certain seasons annually driven to Rome,
and, according to Pliny, some came from almost
incredible distances. ‘‘It is astonishing (he
says) that these birds will travel on foot from
the Morini* even to Rome. The tired ones
are put first, and the rest, by a natural crowd-
ing together, push them forward. The plu-
mage of the white ones is an additional source
of profit. They are plucked in some places
twice a year, and soon recover their feathers.
The down nearest the body is the softest, that
from Germany the most esteemed. There the
white ones, of inferior size, are called ganza,
(modern German, gans, a goose ; gaas, Danish;
gas, Swedish ; gander, English for the male.)+
Their feathers fetch five denarii a pound.”

* The Morini were a people of ancient Belgic Gaul, inhabiting
the territory around modern Calais, the Pays de Calais.

t The gander is usually white, and though longer in the body
appears to be less bulky than the female.

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 177

In some parts of modern Italy, the goose is
in little request for the table, though the sys-
tem of plucking off its feathers while alive,
is still continued.

In ancient Egypt, both the common and a
distinct species, the Egyptian goose, or Vul-
panser, (Chenalopex Algyptiacus,) were kept
tame and reared in vast numbers, as frequent
paintings and sculptured representations of
these birds attest. Herodotus says, that the
Chenalopex* was sacred in Egypt. But the
author of Egyptian Antiquities, observing that
it is of frequent occurrence on the sculptures,
does not consider it to have been a sacred bird; |
“unless (he adds) it may have some claim to
that honour from having been a favourite arti-
cle of food for the priests.” A place in Upper
Egypt had its name Chenoboscion, or Cheno-
boscia, goose-pens, from these animals being
fed there, probably for sale, though these may
have been sacred geese; for we are told that the
goose was a bird under the care of Isis.

The Chenalopex, or Egyptian goose, is abun-
dant in a wild state, along the banks of the Nile,
and is distributed over the whole of Africa;

* This word means fox-goose, a name given in allusion to
the bird’s cunning.

178 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

occasionally it visits the southern parts of the
European continent, and is not unfrequent
in Sicily. In England it is kept as an orna-
ment to sheets of water in parks and pleasure
grounds, where it breeds freely ; hence it hap-
pens that half-wild individuals which have
escaped from their inclosure, are occasionally,
sometimes even frequently, shot, leading those
not acquainted with the bird, to take it for
a British species. Its colouring is very beau-
tiful, and its pace on the ground far more easy
and graceful than that of the common goose.
Two species of geese, besides the ordinary
goose, are often seen domesticated in our
island; these are the Canada goose, (anser
Canadensis,) and the Chinese goose, (anser
Cygnoides.) ‘The Canada goose is the ordinary
wild goose of the middle and boreal regions of
North America; andis a migratory bird, breed-
ing in the higher latitudes, within the arctic
circle ; whence, on the approach of winter, vast
flocks wing their way southwards, where every
means for their destruction are in active opera-
tion. In the fur countries, their appearance on
their northward return in the spring, is hailed
with joy; for it is upon the flesh of this bird,
that the natives of the woody and swampy

THE SWIMMING, OF NATATORIAL GRouP. 179

districts chiefly depend for their sustenance
during the summer. About three weeks
after their first appearance, the Canada geese
disperse in pairs throughout the country,
between the fiftieth and sixty-seventh paral-
lels to breed, retiring at the same time
from the shores of Hudson’s Bay. They are
seldom or never seen on the coasts of the
arctic sea; in July, after the young birds
are hatched, the parents moult, and vast num-
bers are killed in the rivers and small lakes,
when they are unable to fly. When chased
by a canoe, and obliged to dive frequently,
“they soon become fatigued, and make for the
shore with the intention of hiding themselves,
but as they are not fleet they fall an easy prey
to their pursuers. In autumn they again
assemble in flocks on the shores of Hudson’s
Bay for three weeks or a month previous to
their departure southward.” In the territories
of the Hudson’s Bay Company, these birds
are barrelled for use, and the feathers are im-
ported into England. Those taken on the
approach of the cold season, during their
southward migration, in Canada, and within
the states, are frozen in their feathers, and
preserved for winter consumption.

180 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

Though the ordinary European tame goose
is kept in North America, the Canada goose
is also kept there as a domestic bird, and is
said to thrive better than the former. In
France and England it has also become
domiciled, and interbreeds with the common
goose; the hybrids are highly esteemed for
the very superior flavour and delicacy of their
flesh. Bewick observes that the Canada
goose, now one of our domestic birds, “is as
familiar, breeds as freely, and is in every
respect as valuable as the common goose.”
It is said to be extremely watchful, and more
sensible of approaching changes in the atmo-
sphere than our ordinary species.

The Chinese goose or swan goose (anser
Cygnoides) in its general form, the length of
its neck, and the protuberance at the base of
its beak, reminds us of the swan, and appears
to take an intermediate station between the
geese and swan tribes. It rather exceeds the
ordinary goose in size, and freely breeds with
it, so that the pure race is less frequently to
be seen than formerly, at least the mixed breed
has more frequently come under our notice.
The Chinese goose is originally from China
and other parts of Asia, and also from Africa.

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 181

It is the Oie de Guinée of Buffon. Individuals
are sometimes to be met with almost purely
white, with a brown mark down the back of
the neck. Asan ornament of ponds and lakes,
in pleasure grounds, these birds are little in-
ferior to the swan, and it is chiefly for this
purpose that they are kept. We have, how-
ever, seen them, and particularly the mixed
breed, in farm yards.

Tue Tame Swan, on Mute Swan.—The
tame swan (cygnus olor) may perhaps come
within the list of domestic birds, for though
it lives and breeds at large on our rivers and
sheets of water, it is not an indigenous species,
in our island, nor is it one of owr migratory
visitors. Moreover, it is in all cases under
ownership, and guarded by express laws
relative to its preservation. It is, in fact, a
‘bird royal,” in which no subject can have
property, so long as it is on a public river or
creek, except by an express grant.

The preseht species, in a wild condition, is a
native of Siberia, north-eastern Europe, and
the adjacent parts of Asia, migrating south-
wards in winter, when it occasionally visits
Italy. On the Caspian Sea, through Asia
Minor, Mesopotamia, and Syria, it is abundant

182 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

in winter; and swans unnumbered, as in the
time of Homer, may still visit Cayster’s*
springs, and there “stretch their long necks
and flap their rustling wings.”

At what period the swan became reclaimed
and naturalized in western Europe and the
British Isles, we have no means of ascer-
taining, certainly it was at a remote date ; and
as the laws we have alluded to prove, this
noble bird was held in peculiar esteem. From
a digest of the British statutes relative to the
swan in the Penny Cyclopedia, we take a few
extracts, to show their general tendency. The
crown alone has the right of granting a pro-
perty in swans on a public river, and con-
ceding this privilege a swan-mark is also
granted, for distinguishing the particular
“game” or flock of swans, from others on
the same river. Sometimes the crown, instead
of granting a swan-mark, confers the still
further prerogative right of seizing within a
certain district all white or adult swans not
marked. “Thus the abbot of Abbotsbury, in
Dorsetshire, had a game of wild swans in the
estuary formed by the isle of Portland and the
Chesil Bank. The swannery at Abbotsbury

* A river in Asia Minor near Ephesus.

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL GRouP. 183

is the largest in the kingdom, and though
formerly much more extensive, it still numbers
many hundreds of these birds, forming an
object of considerable attraction and interest
to those who visit this part of the coast. It
is now vested in the earl of Ilchester, to whose
ancestor it was granted on the dissolution of
the monasteries.”

The city of Oxford has a game of swans by
prescription, but we do not know that any
are now kept.

On the Thames, the Dyers’ and Vintners’
Company, with the crown, divide the games
of swans between them. The royal mark on
the beak is made on the skin of the upper
mandible with a knife.

The Dyers’ Company have the. swan- santie
consisting of a single notch or nick on one
side of the beak; that of the Vintners’ Com-
pany consists of a mark on each side of the
beak. Hence the sign of the swan with two
nicks, converted in the present day into two
necks.

The adult male swan is called a cob, the
adult female a pen, the young a cygnet.
The cygnets when hatched are clothed with
brownish gray down, and do not acquire

184 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

the white plumage in its perfect purity
till the beginning of the third year. The
female sits upon five, six, or eight eggs, and
during the season of incubation, is sedulously
attended by her mate, who, however, gentle
and inoffensive at other times, becomes now
furious if any one approach the breeding
place, and advances with raised up plumes,
and every demonstration of excitement, to the
attack ; nor is the assault of so large and
powerful a bird, a trifling affair. A blow with
its wing would be likely to inflict a severe
injury.

In former times the swan was in high
repute, and was to be found on the tables of
the great, and no banquet of ceremony or
state dinner was accounted complete, if swans
were not included in the costly bill of fare.

The swan feeds on grain, various aquatic
plants, and the herbage along the sides of lakes
and rivers ; it soon becomes very familiar,

The common tame swan is very long lived.
Its windpipe is simple without any flexure.

Closely allied to the tame swan, or cygnus
olor, and formerly confounded with it, is a
species called by dealers the Polish swan. It
is the Cygnus immutabilis of Mr, Yarrell, who

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 185

first pointed out its differential characters. In
this species, the black tubercle at the base of
the beak is small even in old males: the legs,
the toes, and intervening webs are slate gray.
The cygnets are of as pure a white as the
adults, and consequently undergo no change
of colouring. The windpipe is simple as in
the tame swan; there are, however, many very
marked differences in the osteological structure
of the two birds, which have been pointed out
by W. G. Pelerin, esq., in the Magazine of
Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 179.

The Polish swan is a native of the north of
Europe and the borders of the Baltic, and
occasionally visits our island, sometimes even
in considerable numbers. Young individuals
when captured readily become tamed, and
breed freely on sheets of water.

Of the other wild swans of Europe and
Asia, we may enumerate the hooper, or
whistling swan, (cygnus ferus—Ray ; cygnus
musicus—Bechstein. )

This species is spread throughout the whole
northern range of Europe and Asia, breeding
in the high northern latitudes, (occasionally in
the Shetland and Orkney isles,) and migrating
southwards in winter, even to the shores of

186 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

northern Africa. It visits our island, some-
times in considerable flocks, and their wild
“hooping” note, when heard from a con-
siderable elevation, as they make their way in
the figure of a wedge, through “the cold
thin atmosphere,” is by no means unmusical.
The ancient poets fabled the swan as uttering
a mournfully musical prelude to its death.
Perhaps this idea arose from their having
heard the mingled voices of vast flocks of this
species, as they winged their way to the rivers
and lakes of Asia Minor.

These notes are produced by a_ peculiar
conformation of the tube of the windpipe,
which, before entering the chest, makes a long
loop, which is received into a cavity hollowed
out in the keel of the breastbone throughout
its whole length.

The hooper will breed in captivity. Several
specimens are living in the gardens of the
Zoological Society.

The down and feathers of the hooper are
very valuable, and consequently the bird is
killed in great numbers, in Iceland, for the
sake of these products, which are not only
used by themselves for various purposes, but
exchanged in barter. In August, when the

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 187

old birds have moulted their quill feathers, and
are unable to fly, swan hunting commences.
Many are ridden down by men mounted on
smal) hardy horses, accustomed to swamps
and bogs, which other horses would be unable
to traverse; but most are killed by dogs, which
are trained to seize them by the neck, and
thus quickly despatch and secure them. Swan
hunting in Iceland is a scene of bustle, anima-
tion, and excitement, and the more so as the
interests of the natives are concerned in the
success of this singular chase.

Bewicx’s Swan, (Cygnus Bewickii—Yar-
rell,) a species first distinguished by Mr.
Yarrell, is smaller than the hooper, and differs
besides in the structure of the windpipe, the
great loop of which not only passes into the
keel of the breastbone, which it traverses, but
also passes into a cavity of the flat portion of
the breastbone itself, where before being re-
flected back it takes a considerable curve, and
then returns upon the trough of the keel. The
beak also exhibits some differences.

The cygnus Bewickii is a native of the high
northern regions of Europe and America, and
probably also of Asia. It is only during
severe winters that flocks of this species visit

188 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

our island. According to Mr. Blackwall, the
call note of Bewick’s swan, while on the wing,
is loud and clamorous.

Turning to North America, besides Bewick’s
swan, the hooper, according to most natural-
ists, exists in the northern districts. But the
prince of Canino, in his ‘‘ Birds of Europe
and North America,’ regards the species _
usually considered as identical with the hooper
to be distinct, and registers it as the cygnus
Americanus of Sharpless. How far he is cor-
rect is yet a question. There is, however, a
definite species, the trumpeter swan, (cygnus
buccinator,) undoubtedly peculiar to North
America, and which is the common swan of
the fur countries, whence its skins are im-
ported in great numbers into England. It is
the species that furnishes the principal part
of the swan’s down of commerce, and also
swan quills.

The breeding places of the trumpeter swan
are chiefly within the arctic circle, whence it
migrates southwards on the approach of winter,
preceding the flocks of wild geese. The fold
of the windpipe in this species difiers from
that both of the hooper and Bewick’s swan.

Of the black swan of Australia, and the

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Group. 189

black-necked swan of Chili, we shall say
nothing ; indeed, our notice of the wild swans
of the northern hemisphere is intended rather
to give a list of the species allied more or less
to the tame or mute swan, than to enter into
the minutiz of their history.

Here, then, we may close our account of the
birds legitimately coming under the head of
domestic poultry. A few words may be per-
mitted on another subject. We commenced
the work with a reference to the early history
of man, and endeavoured to show from several
facts, and among others, from his availing
himself, even at the outset of his career of
labour, of the services of such animals as would
assist him by their docility, strength, or in-
telligence, or supply him with food and cloth-
ing, that a savage condition is alien to his
nature. This is emphatically declared by Scrip-
ture. ‘‘God created man in his own image,”
and though that image is defaced, it is not
obliterated ; nor has he lost that ‘dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth,” with which the Cre-
ator invested him. ‘This dominion consists
not only in superiority, connected with the

190 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

possession of intellect, of reason, but arises
also from the total difference as to the end and
aim of his creation—his future destiny and
condition. He is destined for immortality,
he is gifted with reason—a knowledge of good
and evil, and language in which to express his
ideas, and worship the Giver of every good and
perfect gift. When we contemplate man in’
this light, we cannot but see his position in
creation; but he holds another position,—a
position before his God who is his Creator, and
will be his Judge. Is this position one of
perfect innocence and holiness? No! Man
fell from his first estate and lost that position,
and the human race now stands before God,
as guilty, as criminal, as condemned by the
law, to break one tittle of whichis to break the
whole. Manis amenable to punishment ; and
is there means of escape? Yes, he can escape,
for the door of mercy is not closed ; nay, he is
invited to flee for refuge from the wrath to
come, and so plain is the path, that the wayfar-
ing man cannoterrtherein. It is through the
atonement made by our Lerd Jesus Christ,
who “bore our sins im his own body on the
tree,” when he in whom the fulness of the
Godhead dwelt bodily, was crucified, offering

a

THE SWIMMING, OR NATATORIAL Grour. 191

up himself as a sacrifice for the guilt of the
world ;—‘‘he was wounded for our transgres-
sions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
by his stripes we are healed. The Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all,” Isa. liii. 5, 6.
It is through faith in the great atonement
which Jesus made when he gave up his life as
a ransom for sinners, that man can escape
the judgment of God. This faith must be a
lively principle implanted in him by the holy
Spirit, which God has promised to those who
ask in true sincerity. (See Luke xi. 13.)
“‘There is therefore now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. vii. 1.

It was on this atonement, promised to Adam,
after his fall, that the prophets and holy men
of old depended,—but they saw as through a
glass, darkly. To us a purer light is given, a
bright revelation full of hope and joy is made,
and while it humbles our pride, or self-suffi-
ciency, and shows us our guilt, it offers us
pardon and peace, and the bliss of heaven,
where the Redeemer, once rejected by men,
sits on a throne of glory.

How transeendently joyful are the pros

192 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS.

pects of the Christian! But all are not
Christians even among those who claim to be
so accounted, and whole nations are involved
in worse than Egyptian darkness,—the dark-
ness of the soul. Yet the day will come, in
which all nations shall be brought to the
knowledge of the truth, for to the Messiah is
promised the heathen for an inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for a posses-
sion. (Psalm ii. 8.) Such, then, is the exalt-
ation upon earth, to which the Divine decree
has. appointed the human race. Even now
the day is brightening; Christianity can
number among its sincere professors men of
every clime, from the ice-bound north, to the
sunny isles of the southern seas; the skin-
clad Greenlander, familiar with the waves ;
the hardy Russ and Sclavonian; the Anglo,
the Frank, the Hindoo, the Negro, the red
rover of the American forest, and the fierce
Polynesian, once an idolater and a cannibal.
Surely Providence is bringing the great work
to pass, when wars, and cruelty, and oppression
shall cease, and ‘‘the knowledge of the Lord
shall cover the earth as the waters cover the
sea.”

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; INSTITUTED 1799,

alte ys fag
; \ C7

cn Sane
y

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY

F Martin, William Charles
82 Linnaeus
3 Our domestic fowls