FEEDING OF POULTRY. 573 



always purchased, so that, situate as the farmer's family usually 

 is, the produce of the poultry-yard and pig-sty should consti- 

 tute the principal fare upon their board. And why should 

 they not have them in the highest perfection ? . . . The ordi- 

 nary fowls on a farm are the cock (Phasianus gallus), the 

 turkey (Mdeagris gallopavo), the goose (Anas anser), the duck 

 (Anas domestica), and the pigeon (Columba livid), the white- 

 backed or rock dove, which was long confounded with the blue- 

 backed dove (Columba cenas) all of which may be fed on 

 nearly the same kind of diet. 



" First, in regard to the condition of the hen. As hatchings 

 of chickens are brought out from April to September, there 

 will be broods of chickens of different ages in winter some as 

 old as to be capable of laying their first eggs, and others mere 

 chickens. The portion of the broods taken for domestic use 

 are the young cocks and the older hens, there being a natural 

 reluctance to kill young hens which will lay eggs largely in 

 the following season. At all events, of the hen-chickens the 

 most likely to become good layers should be preserved. The 

 marks of a chicken likely to become a good hen are a small 

 head, bright eyes, a tapering neck, full breast, straight back, 

 full ovoidal-shaped body, and moderately long grey-coloured legs. 

 Every yellow-legged chicken should be used, whether male or 

 female, their flesh never being so fine as the others. As to the 

 colour of the feathers, that is not a matter of much importance 

 some preferring to have them all white, others all black ; 

 but I believe there is none better for every useful purpose than 

 the mottled grey. Young fowls may be either roasted or boiled, 

 the male making the best roast, and the female the neatest 

 boiled dish. The older birds may be boiled by themselves, and 

 eaten with bacon, or assist in making broth, or that once 

 favourite winter soup in Scotland Cockieleekie. A chicken 

 never eats more tenderly than when killed a short time before 



