THE POLAND, OR POLISH FOWL. 277 



less than such as were sent by sea round the Cape of Good 

 Hope. At the end of each day's journey they could be let 

 loose immediately that the spot for the night-bivouac was fixed 

 upon ; they would soon learn to return at dusk to their travel- 

 ling Hen-house, and would be well refreshed against the next 

 day's fatigue. Nor, indeed, is there any reason why Fowls 

 should not permanently accompany wandering and unsettled 

 tribes of men, who usually have other live-stock constantly in 

 their train, as well as their wives and children. Mr. J. H. 

 Drummond Hay found that the tent-occupying Arabs of 

 Western Barbary kept Fowls : " Every family," he says, 

 "has its brood of chickens, and these have their roosting 

 quarters in a distant nook or compartment of the tent." In 

 Russia, the finest teas are received overland from the East; 

 nor is it improbable that a few Fowls may have been carried 

 as far as the neighbouring country of Poland, after having 

 accompanied some wealthy merchant, as live-stock to be eaten 

 by the way in case of sickness, or short commons. But 

 whether correct or not, it would be difficult now to alter their 

 nomenclature. One of the Polish Fowls is supposed, by some 

 writers, to be descended from the wild Cock of St. Jago. The 

 assumed existence of such a bird is founded on an error : but 

 if the Cocks of St. Jago are any thing akin to the goats which 

 Captain Cook found there, " of the antelope kind, so extra- 

 ordinarily lean that hardly any thing can equal them," the 

 cross would be no great improvement. But I take it, that no 

 existing wild Gallus has any more to do with the formation 

 of our present breeds, than we have shown that the Pheasant 

 has. Mowbray says, " Perhaps the genuine sort (of Polish) 

 has always five claws ;" and he proceeds to derive " our famous 

 Dorking breed" from them, with the reservation, however, 

 that such a speculation may be groundless, which it decidedly 

 is. For the fifth toe vanishes from the Dorkings at a very 

 early stage of crossing with any other breed. 



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