234 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



appear to learn that certain places where they are protected 

 may be resorted to with safety. 



Because of their freedom of flight it is in all cases difficult 

 to bring our perching birds into such relations with the dom- 

 iciles of man that they can be truly domesticated. The suc- 

 cess, however, which has been attained in the case of the 

 pigeons, which have been so far made captive by the change 

 of their instincts that they never depart far from their cotes, 

 seems to indicate that this tendency again to go wild is by no 

 means ineradicable. In other instances it will probably dis- 

 appear as it has in this by long-continued care in breeding. 

 Our successes with the geese, ducks, and swans, all of which 

 belong to genera characterized by the migratory habit, show 

 how readily in the course of time the old native instincts may 

 be subordinated to the will of man. Although the degree of 

 the difficulty which will be encountered in taming many wild 

 forms may be far greater than that which has been met in 

 those which we have domesticated, there is no reason what- 

 ever to believe that in any case it will be insuperable. 



While all the creatures of the wilderness may by the 

 breeder's art be induced to vary in the conditions of captivity, 

 the birds have shown themselves more plastic in our hands 

 than any other animals. In almost every brood we find indi- 

 viduals possessing marked peculiarities of form or plumage. 

 In their mental qualities also there is a like range of varia- 

 tion. Seizing upon these, the fancier can guide the quick 

 succeeding generations so as to cause the form to depart in 

 the course of a few years very far from its original aspect. 

 With each step in this succession of changes the readiness 

 with which the species responds to selective care increases. 

 The results which have been attained in our barnyard fowl 



