THE COMMON FOWL. 49 



"With respect, therefore, to domestic poultry, 

 the (perhaps) most nutritious of all human 

 food, this rich provision of bounteous Provi- 

 dence is for the first time available to Europe." 

 That is, by means of the Eccaleobion. "We 

 call the Egyptians barbarous : the procuring, 

 however, by art and industry, of that neces- 

 sary of life, good animal food, is no evidence 

 of barbarism. If the population of the united 

 kingdom, which, as respects Egypt, is as 

 twenty-four to two, were as well supplied with 

 this artificial production as Egypt, it would 

 require, not ninety-two millions, but one 

 thousand one hundred and four millions of 

 poultry annually, for them to be as well-fed in 

 this respect as the uncivilized natives of Egypt. 

 But how stands the account on this matter ? 

 Full one-third of our population subsist almost 

 entirely, or rather starve, upon potatoes alone ; 

 another third have, in addition to this edible, 

 oaten or inferior wheaten bread, with one or 

 two meals of fat pork or the refuse of the 

 shambles, per week ; while a considerable 



quail, the pheasant, the grouse, etc , lay no more eggs than 

 they can incubate, nor does the fowl in a state of nature; yet 

 these birds ate delicacies of the table. That the fowl should 

 be so constituted as to lay, while in a state of domestication, 

 more eggs than she can incubate, is a wise provision. 



