THE COMMON FOWL. 27 



creant. Upon searcli, tlie young birds were 

 found concealed in the grass around the scene 

 of action. Of none of the gallinaceous birds 

 is the flesh unfit for food. That of many 

 is a delicacy, and at the same time highly 

 nutritive and easily digestible. Pheasants, 

 partridges, quails, and grouse need no recom- 

 mendation. 



THE COMMON FOWL. 



The common fowl, (Gallus domesticus — 

 Ray.*) This vahiable domestic bird, of which the 

 varieties are extremely numerous, is doubtless 

 derived from some of the wild or jungle fowls 

 of India, and is, perhaps, crossed by more 

 than one species. At what period, or by what 

 people the wild jungle-fowl was reclaimed and 

 brought to become a pensioner on the bounty 

 of man, we have no means of ascertaining. 



* In the restricted genus, (Gallus) the head is ornamented in 

 tlie male, and generally in the female, with a naked comb, single 

 in the jungle-fowls and game domestic races, but in many do- 

 mestic breeds double, or spread in a rose shape. Wattles, two. 

 Spurs in the male. The tail consists of fourteen feathers, form- 

 ing two vertical planes, making what is called a folded tail. In 

 tlie male, the middle feathers are the longest, and fall over the 

 others in a graceful arch. In some domestic breeds, the comb is 

 small, and the top of the head elegantly plumed witli a tuft of 

 feathers. 



