io STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



their contribution to its industries and to its well-being 

 is by no means an inconsiderable or unimportant one. 

 It is our intention to separate the present chapter into 

 several divisions which the commercial uses of birds and 

 their economic utility naturally suggest, thus simplifying 

 considerably the treatment of our subject. 



Our first division will deal with the commercial value 

 of birds as food. In all countries of the world, and 

 amongst all peoples, both of civilised man and his savage 

 brother, the flesh of birds is an important, valuable, and 

 nutritious article of food. In some parts of the world 

 birds are almost the exclusive animal food of man, in 

 preference to either flesh-meat or fish ; and probably 

 there is not a tribe or race of human beings in any part 

 of the world that does not subsist more or less largely 

 on the flesh of birds. As food-producers the various 

 species of Game Birds claim our first attention. This 

 important family of birds numbers nearly three hundred 

 species, which are pretty generally distributed through- 

 out the world, with the exception of Australia and 

 South America, on which continents they are replaced 

 by the Megapodes and Tinamous, whose flesh appears 

 to be equally prized as food. It is a singular and in- 

 teresting fact that the birds of this dominant family are 

 very prolific, some of them laying as many as twenty 

 eggs for a brood, and also remarkably easy of domesti- 

 cation, many readily reconciling themselves to captivity, 



