20 



kept for its feathers only ; and the five remaining, viz. : the 

 Turkey, Fowl, Guinea Fowl, Goose, and Duck, are kept for 

 food, their flesh and eggs both forming important articles of 

 commerce. 



The conditions necessary for a bird to become domestic 

 are the same as those before-mentioned when treating of the 

 domestic mammalia, but as most birds cannot be kept in by 

 mere fencing, attachment to locality is even a more im- 

 portant factor than in the mammalia. 



To repeat what I before stated, an animal to become 

 domestic must possess at least three of the following qualities, 

 viz., 



ist, Unimpaired fertility in captivity. 



2nd, Plasticity of constitution, enabling it to live under 

 widely different conditions of environment. 



3rd, Attachment to locality. 



4th, Attachment to persons or tameness. 



5th, Usefulness. 



Man in the domestication of birds has not only had to 

 deal with a flying animal, but further, with a quality which is 

 but feebly exhibited in mammalia, but exists largely in birds, 

 viz., their migratory habits, no doubt this instinct has more 

 than any other contributed the greatest bar to the domestic- 

 ation of numbers of species which would have been very 

 welcome additions to the poultry yard. 



I shall show in dealing with each domestic species 

 seriatim, that migratory groups of birds have that species 

 alone domestic, in which this instinct is absent, or at any 

 rate existing in a minor degree and by domestication has 

 been gradually eliminated. 



All migratory wild birds kept in captivity exhibit marked 

 uneasiness at the usual migratory periods, this restlessness 

 causing them often to pine away and die. 



Let me first draw your attention to a bird in which there 

 may be said to exist feebly some of the qualities of a domestic 

 bird, viz., the Eider Duck, a remarkable instance of a wander- 

 ing bird which during the nesting season becomes compara- 



