10 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



progenitors, and if an opinion may be offered, it is 

 this : that the wild race, that which once ranged 

 the primeval Woods and jungles, unsubdued />y man, 

 is now extinct, for ever gone, with the Dodos and the 

 Deinornithes. Such an idea quite agrees with what 

 we now see going on in the world. At no very distant 

 period, the turkey will be in exactly the same position 

 in which we are supposing our cocks and hens to be 

 now placed. The race will continue to survive, only 

 from having submitted itself to the dominion of man. 

 Wild turkeys are becoming every year more and more 

 scarce with us, and as population increases, and pene- 

 trates deeper into the wilds, till the whole face of the 

 country is overspread, occupied, and cultivated, this 

 bird must share the fate of the bustard in England ; 

 and where shall we find it then, except under the 

 same circumstances as we now see our domestic 

 fowls ? How long existing literature will endure it is 

 impossible to say ; but should it be swept away by 

 any social convulsion, our descendants, two thousand 

 years hence, will have as much difficulty in determin- 

 ing the origin of the turkey, as we have in deciding 

 upon that of the cocks and hens. 



Man has the power of trampling under foot, and sweep- 

 ing every living thing before him in his progress ; but in 

 some cases, at least, he is likely, for his own sake, to res- 

 cue the most valuable part of the spoil from destruction, 

 if it will only submit to be rescued, and not refuse to ac- 

 cept a continued existence on such conditions. A family 

 of savages would soon consume and destroy a whole 

 province of wild cocks and hens, if it were ever so well 

 stocked ; but civilised man can see his interest in their 

 preservation, and it is lucky for fowls that their des- 

 tiny threw them in contact with the Caucasian race 

 instead of Australian aborigines. But the increase of 

 knowledge and humanity may even yet do something 

 to extend a merciful and forbearing conduct toward 

 existing animals. 



But the common hen has one peculiar habit, which 



