AVES 



597 



true of the flesh-eating, fish-eating:, and particularly carrion-eating 

 forms, such as vultures, eagles, and hawks. During the last few 

 years the common crow has been coming into use as an article of 

 food. Since it lives on an omnivorous diet largely of plant origin, 

 it has a palatable flesh. It certainly is abundant, and it is great 

 sport hunting it. Some restaurants serve it occasionally as a 

 regular part of the menu. The wild ducks and geese have been 

 hunted so extensively that they are no longer a very important 

 source of food ; too, they are necessarily strictly protected at present. 

 The chief domestic birds that are used for food are chickens 

 (domestic fowls), ducks, geese, guinea fowl, pigeons, and peacocks. 

 The domestic chicken is the chief one of these. It likely descended 

 originally from the jungle fowl of India and the East Indian 

 Islands. The original birds were used all through that part of the 

 world as gamecocks. The present game chickens are nearest the 

 jungle fowl of any existing breeds. From this beginning have 

 arisen dozens of valuable breeds of domestic chickens. In thickly 

 populated areas poultry raising is on the increase, not only because 

 the hen is an efficient apparatus for converting grain and garbage 

 into meat and eggs, but also because a large number of chickens 

 may be kept in a relatively small area. Most of the commercial egg 

 production comes from the chicken, which produces more than 

 2,600,000,000 dozen eggs a year in the United States alone. 



The turkey is a domesticated form of the native wild turkey of 

 North America. It is a very popular and profitable meat-producing 

 bird. Millions are produced for the markets in the southwestern 

 part of the United States each year. The guinea fowl is the de- 

 scendent of a small turkeylike bird of Africa. It has dark flesh 

 which is prized by some people. The pigeon is used as food prin- 

 cipally while it is young. The young pigeon is known as a "squab," 

 and it can be raised in close quarters, such as back yards, in cities. 



Besides the production of meat and eggs there are some other im- 

 portant products and services which come from birds. Feathers 

 are used both for ornaments and for pillows. Guano, which is a 

 mixture of the excreta, soil, feathers, unhatched eggs, and dead 

 birds, is rich in nitrogen and is one of the best sources for nitrogen 

 •fertilizer. Hundreds of thousands of tons of it are mined each year 

 and sold. It is estimated that in the areas of the bird roosts the 



