42 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



dren together, as a hen gathereth her chickens 

 under her wings, and ye would not !" are 

 passages sufficiently corroborative. A few 

 years, however, antecedently to the point of 

 time to which these passages lead us, we find 

 that, even in Britain, the domestic fowl was 

 known. How it had reached this ultima thule, 

 of which the Romans, previous to the inva- 

 sion, or we might almost say, discovery by 

 Julius Caesar, were ignorant, it is difficult to 

 determine. "We cannot think that it was 

 imported by the early tribes, Celtic or Belgic, 

 who colonized our fertile land ; they wei*e no- 

 madic people — warriors, scarcely knowing 

 whither they went ; if, however, we might 

 hazard an opinion, it is to the Phoenicians — 

 the merchants of Tyre, whose vessels brought 

 the peacock to Solomon, and who were the 

 great mariners of antiquity, that we owe the 

 introduction of this valuable bird, A history 

 of that wonderful people remains yet to be 

 elaborated ; but that they were famihar with 

 our western and southern coasts, and also with 

 *' Erin's green isle," is, we believe, conceded 

 by all antiquarians. Another inlet to the fowl 

 might have been by the way of Gallia, (where, 

 as Ctesar informs us, three settled nations 



