CHAPTER XIII 

 POULTRY 



THIS is a general name for all birds bred for the table, or kept for 

 their eggs. The birds most commonly included under this desig- 

 nation are the fowl in the restricted sense of the term, the pea- 

 fowl, the guinea-fowl, the turkey, goose and duck. 



PIGEON. The domestic or house pigeons have sprung from 

 the Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon (Columba lima]. It builds in the 

 holes and crevices of rocks, its food consisting of grains. It is, how- 

 ever, also said to feed on snails, etc. The house pigeons, tumblers, 

 f ant ails, carriers and jacobins are the chief varieties of the Rock 

 Pigeon, and are well known as forming some of the most elegant of 

 domesticated birds, and were employed by Darwin in his Origin 

 of Species and his Animals under Domestication to illustrate many 

 points involved in his theory of " descent by natural selection." 

 The Blue Rock Pigeon is that generally kept for profit and mar- 

 keting in farmer's dovecotes. This practice dates from the fifth 

 Egyptian dynasty, about 3,000 B.C. In the time of the Romans, 

 according to Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons, " nay, 

 they are come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and 

 race." About the year 1600, pigeons were so valued by Akber 

 Khan in India, that never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken 

 with the court. " The monarchs of Iran and Turan sent him some 

 very rare birds, and," continues the courtly historian, " His Majesty 

 by crossing the breeds, which method was never practised before, 

 has improved them astonishingly." The Dutch, about this same 

 period, were as eager about pigeons as were the old Romans. 



At the present time pigeons are less kept for profit than in former 

 times, particularly by farmers, but the rage for the Carrier Pigeon 

 has attained to little short of a mania. The Common Carrier 

 Pigeon is a large bird with long wings, large tuberculated cere, and 

 with a circle of naked red skin round the eyes. The practice 

 of sending letters by pigeons belongs principally to eastern coun- 

 tries. The first pigeon used as a messenger some consider to be 

 that which Noah sent from the ark, and which returned with the 

 leaf of the olive. In the province of Irak (that is Chaldaea, Baby- 

 lonia and Assyria), white pigeons are trained with least difficulty. 



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