DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



153 



the breeder's art. The wild species whence it sprang is a 



small creature, laying but few eggs and with but a slight 



tendency to accumulate fat. From this parent stock varieties 



have been bred which attain in some cases to eight or ten 



times the weight of the ancient form. They have, moreover, 



lost the fierce combative spirit which characterizes their 



ancestors and which by selection has been 



preserved and intensified in our breeds of 



\ game-cocks. 



The Original Jungle Fowl (Callus bankiiia) and Some of His Domestic Descendants 



It is an interesting fact that our barnyard fowl is the only 

 species of a large family of birds which has been truly domes- 

 ticated. The kindred pheasants and grouse, though abound- 

 ing in the Old World and the New, and much disposed to 

 abide about the cultivated fields, appear to be rather untam- 

 able. However well cared for, the wilderness motive seems 

 never to have been eradicated. The domesticability of the 

 cock, as is that of most other wild animals, is doubtless to be 

 explained by the conditions of the life in which it has dwelt 

 for ages before it was introduced to the society of man. In its 



