THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 17 



following legend : Among the many traditionary 

 accounts of the origin of the island and its inhabitants, 

 was one, that in former times, when there was nothing 

 but sea, an immense bird settled on the water and 

 laid an egg, which soon bursting, produced Hawaii. 

 Shortly after this, a man and woman, with a hog and 

 a dog, arid a pair of fowls, arrived in a canoe from the 

 Society Islands, took up their abode in the eastern 

 shores, and were the progenitors of the present inha- 

 bitants. 



Captain Cook found fowls on islands that had never 

 before been visited by civilized man, and the very wide 

 range over which they are distributed, precludes the 

 supposition of their having been introduced by Tasman 

 or any of the other early voyagers. " There is only 

 one tame species of birds, properly speaking," says his 

 journalist, " in the tropical isles of the South Sea, 

 namely, the common cock and hen. They are numer- 

 ous at Easter Island, where they are the only domes- 

 tic animals ; they are likewise in great plenty in the 

 Society Isles and Friendly Isles, at which last place 

 they are of a prodigious size ; they are also not uncom- 

 mon at the Marquesas, Hebrides, and New Caledonia ; 

 but the low isles, and those of the temperate zone, are 

 quite destitute of them." 



The pigs of that quarter have been affirmed to differ 

 specifically from our own domestic breeds less has 

 been said about the poultry. It appears that there are 

 different varieties in the different islands, some of very 

 large size. Our great commercial intercourse with the 

 Pacific makes that the quarter from whence our impor- 

 tations of fowls are frequently drawn, either as curious 

 specimens, or for the sake of improving our stock ; but 

 it would certainly be interesting, and might prove use- 

 ful, could we obtain a few new sorts, such as the 

 Friendly-Island breed, from the less frequented spots 

 in the South Seas. Our missionaries in the Sandwich 

 Islands, Tahiti, and other places, might surely send us 

 a few cocks and hens in return for the substantial 



