2a8 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



would have shown an astonishing difference in 

 the musical tastes of their owners. A dozen dogs 

 of as many different breeds, ranging from the 

 boar-hound to the toy terrier, would not have 

 shown greater dissimilarity in their forms than 

 did these cocks in their voices. For the fowl, like 

 the dog, has become an extremely variable 

 creature in the domestic state, in voice no less 

 than in size, form, colour, and other particulars. 

 At one end of the scale there was the raucous 

 bronchial strain produced by the unwieldy Cochin. 

 What a bird is that! Nature, in obedience to 

 man's behests, and smiling with secret satire over 

 her work, has made it ponderous and ungraceful 

 as any clumsy mammalian, wombat, ardvaark, 

 manatee, or hippopotamus. The burnished red 

 hackles, worn like a light mantle over the black 

 doublet of the breast, the metallic dark green 

 sickle-plumes arching over the tail, all the beauti- 

 ful lines and rich colouring, have been absorbed 

 into flesh and fat for gross feeders; and with 

 these have gone its liveliness and vigour, its clarion 

 voice and hostile spirit and brilliant courage; it 

 13 Callus bankiva degenerate, with dulled brains 



