78 



THE AMERICAN POULTERER'S COMPANION. 



JAPANESE WILD FOWL. 



CHAPTER IV. 



WILD FOWL. 



THE wild fowl are at present restricted to 

 India, Malay, Sumatra, Java, and possibly in 

 other islands of the neighboring groups, as well 

 as those scattered over the vast Pacific. How 

 far to the west, in remote ages, some of these 

 species may have spread we know not; some 

 may have been distributed from India through 

 Persia, even to Mongolia and Georgia, an- 

 ciently Colchis, whence the Greeks derived the 

 pheasant, which they found on the banks of the 

 Phasis. 



The cock was supposed to be of Persian ori- 

 gin by some authors ; but the period of their 

 domestication is hidden in the remotest ages 

 of the world ; it is shrouded in mystery. It is 

 said that in the Island of Ascension, wild fowl 

 may be shot like partridges. In the Australian 

 colonies, too, that fowls not well looked after 

 take to a half mid state in the bush, and even 

 building in lofty trees. It has been suggested 

 too, that fowls of the game breeds might be 

 turned out into coverts where pheasants will 

 not stay, and the same opinion has been made 



I public by one of our numerous authors on 

 poultry. 



The acquisition of the fowl species has not. 

 in all probability, been an easy conquest ; to 

 succeed in bringing them into complete bond- 

 age, a long series of attempts and cares has 

 doubtless preceded the success we now enjoy, 

 without being acquainted to whom we are in- 

 debted for them. The species has been since 

 propagated and introduced into general use 

 throughout the whole world, from east to west, 

 from the burning climate of India to the frozen 

 zone. They may be looked upon as a blessing 

 to humanity. Among every polished nation on 

 earth, and even among nations half-civilized, 

 but united in stationary societies, there is no 

 country habitation around which fowls more or 

 less numerous are not met with, which man 

 rears, shelters, and nourishes, and which are 

 called cocks and hens. They are a species which 

 art has almost entirely wrested from nature; 

 fowls are every where seen in a domestic state, 

 and wild ones are scarcely to be found any 



