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are far from being as shy as grouse or partridges ; on the 

 other hand they must have the run of woods, and are 

 reared in captivity with great difficulty, and thus their 

 domestication is barred ; as aviary birds some of the species 

 of allied genera, as the gold and silver pheasants, are some- 

 times kept for several generations by skilful ornithologists, 

 but success is by no means certain. The common fowl, the 

 most valuable of all domestic birds, is of Eastern origin, 

 and is believed to be descended from the Gallus bankiva, the 

 only one of the genius, containing four species, that has 

 become domestic. 



Without doubt, attachment to the homestead and great 

 fertility, are the causes of this Indian species having been 

 domestic for thousands of years. 



Many of the breeds have had their nature and con- 

 stitutions so altered by domestication, that they have lost 

 their natural instincts ; the Cochins for instance cannot fly, 

 and seem to have but little left of the power of searching for 

 food by scratching. 



The other species, although sometimes breeding in 

 captivity, soon die out from infertility, they are found wild 

 in Java, Southern India and Ceylon respectively, all countries 

 with an ancient civilization, so that there is every probability 

 that attempts to domesticate them have been made 

 without success. 



The Turkey, although truly a domestic bird, requires a 

 great deal more care to rear than the fowl ; the date of its 

 introduction into Europe is not well made out, but as it is 

 an American bird, it could scarcely have been known before 

 the discovery of that country. 



Our common Turkey was originally from Mexico, and 

 was derived from a species different from the North American 

 Meleagris galli-pavo, but of late years it has been crossed 

 with the latter, and the large birds now so common are 

 hybrids, and many hybrids have been produced from crosses 

 with the Guatemalan ocellated Turkey, Meleagris ocellata, 

 a smaller species', this cross produces a most gorgeously 



