POULTRY 



CHAPTER I. 



ORIGIN AND VARIETIES OP FAUM BIRDS 



; ORIGIN OF THE WOUD I'OULTRV. II. TYPES AND NATIVE COUNTRY OP BARN-YARD 



FOWLS. III. CHANGES DUE TO BREEDING. IV. DIVISION OF FOWLS. 



V. THE WILD TURKEY. VI. DUCKS. VII. GEESE. VIII. THE SWAN. 



IX. PHEASANTS. X. GUINEA FOWLS. XT. PEAFOWLS. XII. ANATOMY 



OF THE HEN. 



I. Origin of the Word Poultry. 

 The word poultry comes from the Latin word ^JwZZws, a chicken, or the 

 young of any animal. In its broad sense it is now used to designate any 

 domestic fowl bred or fed for human food, and for the eggs and feath- 

 ers. Hence, the peacock may reasonably be included, since its feathers 

 are an important article of commerce. The modern word poultry, how- 

 ever, more pj'operly comes from the French word poule, hen, just as our 

 word pullet comes from the French poulet, a chick. The cut of the 

 French Creve Cceur will illustrate a singular departure from the wild 

 type given on the next page. In a more modern sense the word poul- 

 try is generally applied to barn-yard fowls or the genus gallus — the Avord 

 fowl being used with a prefix, as water-fowl, which includes ducks and 

 geese, Guinea-fowl, etc., while turkeys, peacocks, pheasants and other 

 later or only partially domesticated birds are designated by their proper 

 or common names, 



II. Tjrpes and Native Country of Bam- Yard Fowls. 

 The originals of all the varieties of barn-yard fowls were inhabitants of 

 thickets, and other openings of the forests, rather than of the dense 

 forest itself ; there are a number of species. A variety closely resem- 

 bling our common barn yard fowl, is the Sonnerat fowl, ( Gallus Son- 

 neratii) a native of the Ghautes, separating Malabar from Coromandel. 

 Damphier, previous to the discovery of Sonnerat, found wild fowls 

 closely resembling our old barn-yard fowls in the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago. So it may safely be said, that our fowls with long flowing 

 tails, are natives of India. 



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