4 8 



OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



FIG. 35. Houdan cock. (Photograph from the 

 Houdan Yards, Sewickley, Pennsylvania) 



Polish fowl : to carry 

 it the structure of the 

 head must be changed. 

 Such changes require 

 systematic breeding for 

 a long period. Dutch 

 and German artists of 

 the sixteenth century 

 painted many farmyard 

 scenes showing fowls 

 of both these types, 

 frequently in flocks 

 with common fowls 

 and with some that 

 appear to be a mixture. 

 To any one versed in 

 the breeding of poultry this indicates that these peculiar types 

 had been made by very 

 skillful breeders long 

 before. The most rea- 

 sonable supposition is 

 that these breeders were 

 monks in the monas- 

 teries of Central Europe. 

 Throughout the Middle 

 Ages the monks of 

 Europe, more than any 

 other class of men, 

 worked for improve- 

 ment in agriculture as FIG. 36. White Minorca hen. (Photo- 

 well as for the advance- S ra P h from Tioga Poultry Farm, Apala- 



chin, New York) 



ment of learning. 



French races. The Houdan is the only French breed well 

 known in America. It is of the Polish type, but heavier, and 



