176 POULTRY CULTURE 



want of the different kinds of food, it is probable 1 that they derive 

 about as much of their nourishment from animal and green foods as 

 from grains and seeds. The form in which they take foods differs 

 in nearly every case from the form in which it is supplied to them 

 by a keeper. The grains and seeds that they get in the natural 

 state are mostly small, and a large proportion of them are at some 

 stage of germination. Very small grains and seeds are taken only 

 in the absence of larger ones, but these small seeds, as of grass 

 and many weeds, are eaten greedily, blade (or leaf), root, and all, 

 after germination. There are few, if any, of our common plants 

 and weeds that poultry will not eat in the first tender stage, though 

 there are many for which they have little appetite when they have 

 passed beyond that stage. They always prefer tender vegetation, 

 and it has often been noted that their marked preference for cer- 

 tain plants was for the condition, not for the kind. The animal 

 food secured under natural conditions consists principally of small 

 creatures (insects, worms, etc.) eaten whole, bony and fibrous 

 parts being swallowed with the rest. Under these conditions 

 all poultry undoubtedly consume very much larger quantities of 

 indigestible material than the poultry keeper usually gives them, 

 but much of this is in such form that it mechanically assists the 

 processes of digestion, giving greater bulk to the ration and prevent- 

 ing the more nutritious parts from massing, or lumping, so that 

 the organs and secretions do not properly operate on them. The 

 digestive organs of these birds are adjusted to a mixed diet con- 

 taining a considerable proportion of indigestible material. Normally 

 the food, even on good range, is secured only by effort which gives 

 the bird all the exercise needed to keep it in good condition. The 

 activities of the birds are manifested in walking and running after 



1 Such a point is much more difficult to determine definitely than at first ap- 

 pears. The birds may eat at one time or season larger quantities of one kind of 

 food, at another time or season larger quantities of another kind of food, accord- 

 ing to abundance of supply, temperature, etc. Habit and familiarity with articles 

 also have a great deal to do with their selection of food, and so observations for 

 short periods are often of little value. But whoever closely observes the feeding 

 of a few of these birds on a range where food of all kinds is abundant and they 

 can select just what they want, cannot fail to be impressed by the attention that 

 they give to vegetation and insects, and by the difference in the consumption of 

 grain between a flock on good range and a yarded flock supplied liberally with 

 the vegetable and animal foods most used for poultry in confinement. 



