transported from the old to the new Continent. 275 



temperate'climates. If after attaining a certain thickness, it 

 is cut, it immediately begins to sprout again, and things go on 

 in the usual order; but if the proper time for depriving the 

 animal of its fleece is allowed to pass, the wool thickens and 

 becomes matted, and ends with coming oft in patches, which 

 leave under them not a new wool, nor a bare skin in a dis- 

 eased state, but a short, shining and well- laid hair, very 

 similar to that which the goats assume in the same climates. 

 In the places where this hair has once appeared, no wool ever 

 grows. 



The goat thrives better in the low and burning valleys than 

 in the elevated parts of the Cordillera. In the climates which 

 agree with it, it multiplies well, there being commonly two, 

 sometimes three kids, at each birth ; but never six as some 

 have chosen to assert. Its size is small, but in form it has 

 gained much : its body is more slender, its head more elegant, 

 better placed, and generally less loaded with horns. 



The domestic fowls that have been carried to the West In- 

 dies, are, the common fowl, the goose, the duck, the pea- 

 cock, the pigeon, and the Guinea fowl. 



The two last have undergone no change. The peacock is 

 absolutely the same as in France. The goose has been intro- 

 duced about twenty 3'ears ; at first it laid but a small number 

 of eggs, and at long intervals, and scarcely the fourth part 

 were hatched ; of the goslings, more than half died in the 

 first month. Those who escaped, formed a second generation 

 which had become more familiarized to the climate ; and at 

 the present day, the species, without being as yet so prolific 

 as in Europe, is evidently approaching to the same point. 



With respect to the common fowl, the same thing happened 

 at Cuzco, and in its whole valley, as Saralasso informs us; 

 and more than thirty years passed before chickens were ob- 

 tained, although At-y-Ucai and Muyna, only four leagues 

 from the town, they were procured in abundance. At the 

 present day, the race introduced is every where prolific; but 

 the English breed which has been imported within these few 

 years, for the purpose of obtaining game cocks, hau not yet 

 arrived at this degree of fecundity ; and in the first year, the 

 proprietor of a flock thought himself fortunate if he obtained 

 two or three chickens from the whole. When the chickens 

 of eitlver race are observed, in the warm districts, curious 

 differences are remarked in them. The creole chicken, whose 

 parents have lived for ages in a temperature which never de- 

 scends beloiv 20°, comes from the egg with a small quantity 

 of down, which it presently loses, and remains completely 

 bare, with the exception of the wing feathers, which grow in 

 Hie ordinary way. The chicken of the English breed, on the 

 contrary, makes its appearance witli a thick covering of down. 



