AND 



BIRDS 



Poultry 



' Xigger-fowL" 



known. 



<uid thus is led to believe that the domestic fowls of the world may have come 

 l n. 1 1. 1. The special association of Chittagong, however, with the ganie- 

 i India has little more tn justify it than the early association of the turkey 

 \vitli i ill. -HI. .Montgomery Martin, compiling from Buchanan-Hamilton, speaks 

 of tin- people of Assam as keeping game-cocks (E. Ind., Hi., 071). Lawrence 

 t.-iu us i hut in K.i-lmnr capons are specially reared for the table, but in India Capons. 

 as a whole little or no attention appears to be given to special methods of breed- 

 .-t<ding, etc., of fowls for the table as distinct from those reared for the 

 -u'|ipl\ H.IIU.T (Travels, 1656-68 (Constable, Or. Misc.), 1891, i.. 



<r tributes this to "the people being tender-hearted toward animals of 

 description, men only excepted." "The markets are amply supplied 

 ,-ith fowls tolerably good and cheap. Among others there is a small hen, 



iite and tender, which I call Ethiopian, the skin being quite black." Ethiopian Han. 

 Inspired possibly by Marco Polo, Linschoten (who was by no means as 

 accurate an observer as Bernier) affirms that the flesh of the so-called Ethiopian 

 i also the bones are black. [Of. also Thevenot, Travels in Levant, Indostan, etc., 

 >7. iii., 51.] Tegetmeier (Poultry Book, 265-8) gives full particulars of these 

 " Nigger-fowls " (the Sooty Fowls of some writers), and it need only 

 ied that they are by no means common in India. John Leo (Africanus) 

 (Oeog. Hist. Africa (Pory, transl.), 1600, 314) describes the incubators in use in 

 V.vpt during the 16th century. 



In the more populous parts of India (Bengal especially) fowls, like many 

 other articles of food, have risen in price considerably within the past 20 to 30 

 rears. At the beginning of that period four large or eight small fowls could 

 ive been purchased for one rupee, while at present they cost 4 to 12 annas 

 or even one rupee each. [Cf. Scott, Dom. Poult, known to the Jews, Mem. Wern. 

 Soc., 1830, vi., 391-401 ; Wilson, Orig. Dom. Poult., 402-16 ; Low, Hist. 

 Tenasserim, Journ. Roy. As. Soc., ii., 272 ; Anderson, Mandalay to Momien, 

 16 ; Hoey, Monog. Trade and Manuf. N. Ind., 152 ; Voelcker, Improv. Ind. 

 igri., 405 ; Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir, 365-6 ; Collett, A. B.C. Guide, to 

 iring Poultry, Ind. ; Isa Tweed, Poult. Keeping in Ind. ; My Poult., by 

 'The Indian Henwife " ; Mackenzie, Popular Poult. Keeping ; Wright, The Book of 

 ; Numerous writers in Indian public press such as in Bomb. Gazette, Aug. 

 Madras Mail, Feb. 1896 (report on the Dudar Poult. Farm); Ind. Agrist., 

 1898 ; McCue andBradshaw, Poult., inAgri. Oaz. N.-S. Wales, 1898, ix., 894-7, 

 11 ill -SO; Planters' Gaz., Oct. and Nov. 1899; Pioneer, article by " Camellia," 

 Teb. 1900 ; Ind. Agrist., May 1900 (a report on Poult. Rearing in Beng. at the 

 lodel Farm of Pakur) ; Poult, in West Ind., in Imp. Dept. Agri., Pamphl. 

 fo. 23, etc., etc.] 



TRADE IN BOOS. Mention has already been made of the production of Ducks' 

 eggs in Madras Presidency for the Burmese market. Though all large towns have 

 egular supplies of eggs, nothing can be learned as to the sources on which they 

 It would thus seem as if every great centre produced its own fowls and 



j;gs, within its immediate neighbourhood. In the official publication Prices and Indian supplies. 

 Vages in India, certain particulars are furnished re'garding eggs in the Western 

 Presidency. A rise in price has on the whole taken place, but in Bombay town Pric. 



is not material, as eggs sell at 4 to 5 annas a dozen. Taking the years 1871- 

 75 as being 100, they sold in 1901 at 107, in 1902 at 100, and in 1903 at 103 ; 



Sind at 127 ; and in Central India and Rajputana at 118. The traffic in Egg Albumen. 

 Ibumen is important. An article in The Indian Agriculturist (Feb. 1898) re- 

 news an account that appeared in a Burma paper of the Chin-hiang China China Trade. 

 rade in that substance. Ducks abound in the neighbourhood, flocks of 4,000 

 5,000 being not uncommon. The eggs are broken and the white separated 

 >in the yolk. The white or albumen is used in dyeing, being largely exported 

 r that purpose to Europe, and the yolk, used in the dressing of certain leather, 

 in much demand in Europe. The Diplomatic and Consular Report (1901, 

 Jo. 2601, 10) gives the returns of the Chinese traffic in egg-yolk. It rose from Yolk. 

 J.788 to 22,533 cwt. 



[Cf. Ainslie, Mat. Ind., 1826, 117, 288; O'Shaughnessy, Beng. Disp., 686-7; 

 3yle, Prod. Isinglass, 5 ; Honigberger, Thirty -five Years in East, ii., 320 ; Waring. 

 Pharm. Ind., 281 ; Simmonds, Waste Prod., 1876. 118 ; Hoey, Mowg. Trade and 

 Manuf. N. Ind., 1880, 152; Hendley, Med. Top. Jeypore, 1895/67 ; Lawrence, Valley 

 of Kashmir, 1895, 366; Ind. Agrist., Feb. 1, 1898; Journ. Board of Trade, Sept. 

 1899, vi., 149-56; Dec., 362; many newspaper articles on preservation of eggs, 

 on the testing their freslvness, etc., have appeared in the Indian press, mostly 



137 



D.E.P., 

 i., 160. 

 Eggs. 



of 



