PLYMOUTH ROCK STANDARD AND BREED BOOK 41 



breeds, particularly those we obtained from China, were descend- 

 ants of the Gallus ferrugineus. If so, we must go farther back 

 to find the common ancestry. 



W. G. Tegetmeir, who, according to Brown, was associated 

 with the great Darwin in his research work, took the view that 

 while a large part of our present day domestic fowls could trace 

 their ancestry back to the Gallus bankiva, it was more than 

 improbable that fowls of certain types, such as the Brahma and 

 Cochin, could also. These, in his opinion, which he cites appar- 

 ently after years of research and study, must have descended 

 from a different branch of the genus, either now extinct or modi- 

 fied to such an extent that it is classed with some other species 

 of the Gallus family. This, of course, means that we must go 

 back of the Gallus bankiva to find the common ancestry. 



Brown, in the excellent work mentioned heretofore, gives the 

 sum and substance of our knowledge at the present time in 

 the following paragraph : 



"To sum up, therefore, it may be taken that with the domestic 

 fowl, as with many other natural forms of life, we can go so far 

 back, but no further. The probability is that, as in the case of 

 dogs, all the varieties of fowls do not owe their origin to any one 

 species, at any rate of those now extant, and that we must look 

 to another progenitor than the G. ferrugineus (bankiva) for 

 several of the later introduced races, more especially those from 

 China." 



Incentives to Poultry Keeping. While we have fanciers and 

 breeders of Standard fowls among us by the thousands that are 

 engaged in this work purely for the pleasure that they derive 

 from it, the income therefrom or, more directly, the food supply 

 derived is the great incentive to poultry keeping with a very 

 large majority. Nevertheless, all of the available accounts of 

 ancient literature indicate, and the probabilities are that the love 

 of sport first induced the natives of India, in which country 

 fowls were first found, to domesticate wild fowls ; and to obtain 

 specimens better endowed physically for cock fighting, a sport 

 that has been the natives' leading amusement until the present 

 time, they bred fowls after their own selection. 



Introduced Into Europe. Starting in India, the keeping of 

 fowls with civilization crept westward through Asia and Europe 

 into Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and England. Besides their 

 indebtedness to the fowls that developed from this early intro- 



