THE PIEST EDITION. 15 



in museums, and portrayed by artists ; but a class of 

 creatures inferior to few on the face of the earth in 

 beauty useful, companionable, of great value in an eco- 

 nomical point of view are disregarded and disdained. It 

 is possible that any one claiming to be considered as an 

 educated gentleman, may be thought to have done a 

 bold thing in publishing a book on Poultry, and giving 

 his real name on the title page. Moubray, who has 

 written, perhaps, the best modern treatise on the sub- 

 ject, only ventured to meet the public criticism under 

 the shelter of an assumed title. 



But some very important speculations respecting or- 

 ganic life, and the history of the animated races now in- 

 habiting this planet, are closely connected with the 

 creatures we retain in domestication, and can scarcely 

 be studied so well in any other field. Poultry, living 

 under our very roof, and, by the rapid succession of their 

 generations, affording a sufficient number of instances 

 for even the short life of man to give time to take some 

 cognisance of their progressive succession, poultry af- 

 ford the best possible subjects for observing the trans- 

 mission or interruption of hereditary forms and instincts. 



I shall, no doubt, at the first glance, be pronounced 

 rash, as soon as I am perceived to quit the plain task of 

 observing, for the more adventurous one of speculating 

 upon what I have observed. I can only say that the 

 conclusion to which I have arrived respecting what is 

 called the " origin" of our domestic races, has been, to 

 my own mind, irresistible, having begun the investiga- 

 tion with a bias towards what I must call the wild theory, 

 although so fashionable of late, that our tame breeds or 

 varieties are the result of cross-breeding between undo- 

 mesticated animals, fertile inter se. It will be found, I 



