THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 41 



attendant upon Man in his migrations and his occupation of 

 strange lands. The carnivorous diet of the Dog is one main 

 cause of his pre-eminence. But search where you will, except 

 in the very highest latitudes, you will find in New Zealand, 

 Australia, the American Continents, the West Indies, and in 

 islands innumerable, Fowls sharing in the possession and settle- 

 ment obtained by Man. As we approach the Poles, difficulties 

 arise in the way of their further companionship. In Green- 

 land they are occasionally kept only as curiosities and rarities. 

 And Sir Wm. Hooker tells us that Poultry of all kinds is 

 quite unknown to the Icelanders, except that a few are now 

 and then conveyed to the country by the Danes, who are ob- 

 liged at the same time to bring with them a sufficient supply 

 of necessary food, i. e. grain, for their support, of which the 

 island furnishes none. Fowls, however, would get on very 

 well with a fish and meat diet, with grass and vegetables, 

 assisted by a little imported corn, were there sufficient induce- 

 ment to make the inhabitants take pains about their main- 

 tenance. But a little powder and shot procures them an 

 abundance of wild-fowl that are much more to their taste ; 

 and fresh-laid eggs would be little cared for by people, who, 

 like the Icelanders, prefer those eggs of the Eider Duck which 

 have young ones in them. 



But the most mysterious, though not the most ungenial, 

 localities in which Fowls have hitherto been found, are the 

 islands scattered over the vast Pacific Ocean. How they got 

 there is as great or a greater puzzle than to divine the origin 

 of the human population. The earliest discoverers found the 

 people to be possessed of pigs, dogs, and fowls, all domesticated 

 for the sake of being eaten. "On the walk to Oree's house 

 (in Huaheine), Dr. Sparrman and I (Mr. Gr. Forster, who 

 accompanied the expedition as Naturalist) saw great numbers 

 of hogs, dogs, and fowls. The last roamed about at pleasure 



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