SPECIES IN DOMESTIC BIRDS 27 



Natural varieties. A species having developed as a variety 

 of an earlier species will continue to develop as one variety or 

 as several varieties, according to conditions. If a part of a species 

 becomes so separated from the rest that intercourse ceases, each 

 division of the species may become a well-defined variety. 



Varieties in domestication. How a species when domesti- 

 cated breaks up into varieties is well illustrated by the case of 

 the fowl. The original wild species has long disappeared, but 

 there is good reason to suppose that in size and color it was 

 something between a Brown Pit Game and a Brown Leghorn. 

 The birds were smaller than most fowls seen in this country to- 

 day. The prevailing color was a dull brown, because that color 

 best conceals a small land bird from its enemies. Fowls that 

 were domesticated and given good care and an abundance of 

 food would usually grow larger than the wild stock. Thus if 

 any person, or the people generally in any community, system- 

 atically gave their fowls good care, a variety of unusual size 

 would be developed. 



Different colors would also appear in the flocks of fowls, be- 

 cause the birds of unusual colors would be protected and pre- 

 served, instead of being destroyed as they usually are in the wild 

 state. Other peculiarities, too, such as large combs, crests, and 

 feathered legs, would be developed in some lands and neglected 

 in others. This is how it happened that after thousands of years 

 in domestication the races of fowls in different parts of the world 

 were quite different in size and form, but alike in being of 

 many colors. 



From a species in this condition modern poultry b'reeders 

 have made hundreds of distinct varieties. The easiest method 

 of making a variety in domestication is to select specimens for 

 breeding as near the desired type as possible, and to breed only 

 from a few individuals in each generation which come nearest 

 to the ideal type. In this way a variety that breeds quite true to 

 the type may be established in from three or four to eight or 



