OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



intercourse between Japan and Western nations began, it was 

 found that the ordinary fowls of Japan were much like the 

 ordinary fowls of Europe and America, and not, as would be 

 expected, like the fowls of China. This indicated that there 

 had been no exchange of fowls between China and Japan after 

 the type in China became changed. It also affords strong evi- 

 dence that the fowls of India and China, although so changed, 



were originally like 

 the European and 

 Japanese common 

 fowls. The special 

 races developed in 

 Japan were Game 

 Fowls, more like 

 the European than 

 the Malay type ; 

 a long-tailed fowl, 

 very much like the 

 Leghorn in other 

 respects; and the 

 very short-legged 

 Japanese Bantam. 

 The "hen-fever" 

 period. We are all 

 familiar with the 

 phrase "the hen fever" and with its application to persons 

 intensely interested in poultry, but few know how it originated. 

 The interest in better poultry that had been slowly growing in 

 the Eastern states culminated in 1849 in an exhibition in the 

 Public Garden in Boston, to which fanciers from eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, Rhode Island, and eastern Connecticut brought their 

 choicest and rarest specimens. This was the first poultry show 

 held in America. Nearly fifteen hundred birds were exhibited, 

 and the exhibitors numbered over two hundred. There were 



FIG. 42. Long-Tailed Japanese Phoenix cockerel 

 (Photograph from Urban Farms, Buffalo, New York) 



