POUI,TRY 



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1302 - Poultry Breeding in Tunis ; Imported and Native Breeds. — chenevard w.. in 



Bulletin de la Societe cV Horticulture dc Tunisie, Year 14, No. 99, pp. 157-160. Tunis, Octo- 

 ber 15, 1916. 



" Kabyles " is the term commonly used for all native poultry in Tunis, 

 but for practical purposes the three following classes may be distinguished : 

 i) The true Kabyle, generally partridge colour with a long body, 

 yellow legs and a weight which rarely goes above 2 lbs, 



2) The Arab type which is rather a better kind of bird, more com- 

 pact in form, with yellow or green legs and various colourings of plumage, 

 generally tending towards a yellow brown ; its average weight is 2.2 to 

 2.6 lbs. 



3) All other birds. 



Good results have been obtained with the Arab by selection and by 

 crossing with imported varieties, birds weighing up to 3 to 4.5 lbs, being 

 obtained, but the quality of the flesh is very poor. Kabyles are too small 

 ever to prove of economic importance. 



An experiment was carried out in which the weights of birds of the 

 Arab type were compared with those of a Malines cross known as the 

 Tunisian Cuckoo throughout the period of their growth. The mean fi- 

 gures are given below. 



Egg before incubation 



" after 5 days incubation 



" " 10 " " 



" 15 " " 



" " 21-22 " chick 1.40 



shell 0.25 



I<oss of weight during incubation 



Chick 3 days old 



5 " " 



" ID " " 



15 " " 



" 20 " " 



25 " " 



30 " " 



45 " " 



60 ". " 



75 " " 



90 " " 



" 105 " " . .* 



Valb. 



The feeding consisted of hard egg and bread sop to start with, fol- 

 lowed by barley mash, cooked rice and soui milk together with millet and 

 tail corn, the consumption per head up to 105 days old and per lb. of live 

 weight being as follows : 



