CHAP. II.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 33 



CHAPTER II. 



Poultry — Tame and Wild Birds — Origin and Description of 

 domestic Fowls — Moulting — The Cock — The Hen — Anec- 

 dote of a Robin-^Age of Fowls — Breeding — Valentine's 

 day — Selection of Cocks and Hens — Number of Mates 

 to one Cock. 



In a general sense the term Poultry — which 

 has been evidently derived from the French 

 Poule, or Poulaille — includes all those classes, 

 whether geese and ducks, turkeys, guinea- 

 birds, or common fowls, which are usually 

 reared in this country for domestic use. The 

 gallinaceous species (the apparent pedantry of 

 which designation ladies will, it is hoped, 

 excuse) comprehends all those distinctively 

 called " fowls," the various races of which 

 constitute the subject of this and the following 

 chapter. 



It has been remarked by Goldsmith, in his 

 Animated Nature, " that most of the domes- 

 tic birds of the poultry kind, which we retain 

 in our yards, are of foreign extraction ; and it 

 is remarkable enough, that while the tame 



D 



