GENEKAL INTKODUCTlOX. 



it to the high state of perfection to which it is cap:il»lo of attaininL^r^ ii considerable 

 portion of the following pages has been devoted. 



Taking a comprehensive view of the subject of PoULTIlY, i( will be b.un.l that, in .-m 

 extensive collection, the geographical history and commercial progress of the civilised 

 globe might, with no inconsiderable degree of certainty, be indicated. "Tims," says 

 Mr. Richardson, " the peacock* represents India; the golden pheasant, and a tribe of 

 lucks, China; the turkey (pride of our yard and table) is one of our many debts duo to 

 America ; the black swan (rival of the snowy monarch of our lakes) reminds us of our 

 Australian discoveries ; while Canada and Egypt have each their goose. The large, fat, 

 white ducks — models of what a duck should be — are triumphs of Jiritish breeding, 

 and afiord a specimen of one of the best productions of Buckinghamshire, since John 

 Hampden. When, however, we turn to the fowl varieties, we find that Spain and 

 Hamburg, Poland and Cochin China, Friesland and Bantam, Java and Negroland 

 (besides our native Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Suflfolk, and Lancashire), have each a cock to 

 crow for them in our poultry-yards." It is further to be observed, that the same close 

 attention to the proper kinds of food, warmth, and symmetry of form, which have built 

 up to their present perfection our short-horned cattle, Leicester sheep, and thorough- 

 bred horses, have similarly brought out the improving qualities of the fowl. It is thus 

 that the elegant, though diminutive and spirited, Bantam has been produced ; as well as 

 the beautiful Spanish and Poland fowls. In 1826, when poultry shows were first 

 established, with a view to draw a wider range of public attention to this branch of 

 rural life, they extended into many parts of the kingdom ; and, gradually increasino-, 

 they were, by 1860, so numerous, that there was hardly a district in England, of 

 any consideration, but could boast of its society for the improvement of poultry. 

 Even the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, has had its shows of poultry, pigeons, and 

 rabbits. This has not been without its advantages, as it has enabled agricultural visitors 

 to London to compare what has been doing in the way of improving the lesser denizens of 

 the farm-yard; whilst at the annual Smithfield cattle show they are enabled to note the 

 development of meat and fat, and the diminution of offal and bone, in the more stately 

 occupants of the stall and the meadow. What the last half century has done for cattle, 

 sheep, and swine, a comparatively limited period has sufficed to effect for the several 

 varieties of domestic poultry. The increase of size and weight of all classes of improved 

 fowls, is now so much a matter of course, that, to secure prizes, they must combine with 

 those essential requisites, higli condition, quality, beauty of plumage, purity of race, 

 and even uniformity in the markings, as well as in the size and form of the comb and 

 wattles. To all these particulars due attention has been given in the division in which 

 the treatment of poultry will be found. 



A few years since, some Englishmen accepted an invitation from the French 

 government, to cross the Channel with their best live-stock and implements, and enter 



* At the siege of Lucknow, a touching incident occurred in connection witli this beautiful bird. 

 When the besieged were broken with sickness, sorrow, and comparative want, one day a bright-winged 

 peacock lighted on one of the buildings of the beleaguered town, and attracted the eyes of many of 

 the brave, though forlorn, inhabitants. How a taste of the fresh food of that bird would have been 

 relished ! Several muskets were presented at it ; but, with an indescribable sense of humanity, they 

 were lowered again, and the beautiful stranger was sutfered to lly away uninjured. Yet, at that 

 instant — 



" Man's inhumaniiy to man" 



was making countless thousands mourn. 



