GALLING. 



ORDER V. GALLING. 



(Poultry.) 



Of all the Orders of birds there is none which 

 is so valuable to man as this ; their flesh is tender, 

 sapid, and digestible, and their eggs are in high 

 esteem as human aliment, while from their gene- 

 rally large size, the number of the eggs which 

 they lay, and consequently their rapid increase, 

 the power which they exhibit of accommodating 

 themselves to the vicissitudes of climate, and the 

 facility with which th?y are domesticated, they 

 may be considered as supplying the place of the 

 Ruminants among Mammalia. 



The characters by which they are distinguished 

 are strong and well-defined. They are all grani- 

 vorous, feeding on the farinaceous grains, pulse, 

 and seeds, which are cultivated by man for his 

 own sustenance, or upon their wild representa- 

 tives ; though insects are often added to this diet. 

 Their heavy carriage, stout form, small head, and 

 short, rounded, and hollow wings, at once distin- 

 guish them from other birds, while their soft and 

 slight breast-bone (sternum), so cut away that the 

 horizontal portion is reduced to two narrow strips 

 on each side, its keel obliquely hollowed away in 

 front, and the merrythought-bone (furcula) at- 

 tached to it only by a ligament, are equally dis- 

 tinctive peculiarities in their internal anatomy. 

 And these peculiarities exercise an important in- 



