71 



^be Storv? of Bir&-2)eatb. 



By W. Geo. CreSwei.!., M.D. Diirh., L.R.C.P., F.Z.S. 



(Continued jroin page 6^). 



'^w^Tjr's we should expect, the highest degree of im- 

 JM niunity is found in domestic poultry and 

 I JL pigeons. In the aggregate enormous multi- 

 ^ tudes of these birds are bred and kept all over 



most civilized countries and often indeed in uncivilized 

 ones. Fanciers and farmers possess them by the 

 hundred, and nearly every back yard and cottage 

 garden in our own towns and villages holds a fowl pen 

 which is nearly always much overcrowded and 

 generally contains in addition to its primar}^ occu- 

 pants a pair or so of pigeons kept " to please the bo}^" 

 Such conditions have necessarily accentuated the 

 racial quality of indifference due to long domestica- 

 tion. As to this latter we learn that in 1400 B.C. the 

 fowl was kept in China, having been introduced thither 

 from the West, i.e. from India.-'' As to the truth of 

 the former, the general proposition, let us by way of 

 illustration contrast the behaviour of some of the 

 sub-breeds. Hamburghs and Campines, while much 

 more hardy than Buff Cochins in relation to exposure 

 to climatic conditions, and while much better able to 

 forage for themselves, are universally known not to 

 thrive well in small enclosed runs, whereas the Cochins, 

 being heavier in build and more sluggishly disposed, 

 and having in consequence existed for ages in closer 

 contact with insanitary conditions, are much healthier 

 in pens than the other two varieties mentioned. And 

 among fowls generalh^ — the results of foul air, dung- 

 sodden ground, food necessaril}' tainted by contact 

 with this latter, and of water alwa3's more or less 

 impure, are seen to be that compared with the 

 enormous head of birds the sick and death rates are 



*Daiwiu. Plants and A7iitnals under Domestication. 2iid Edit, page 259. 



