DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



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very closely resembles that of domestic 

 breeds and the wild form breeds freely 

 with domestic races. The game fowl 

 most closely resembles the wild species. 

 In fact it can scarcely be distinguished 

 from it except by the larger size and 

 more erect carriage of the tail. The 

 jungle fowl is difficult of domestication 

 but in the Philippines wild cocks are 

 kept for fighting purposes. 



Brief mention may be made of other 

 wild fowl which have sometimes been 

 referred to as parents of our common 

 fowl. The Gray or Sonnerat's jungle 

 fowl (Gallus sonneratii) of India resem- 

 bles the common fowl in structure but 

 the voice is entirely different. The 



increases in size and undergoes changes 

 in color. The mallard crosses freely 

 with domestic ducks and the crosses are 

 fertile. The Rouen resembles the wild 

 mallard more closely than any other 

 duck. Not only the common breeds of 

 ducks but also the call duck, penguin 

 duck and hook-billed duck derive their 

 origin from the mallard. The muscov- 

 ies come from the wild musk duck 

 (Cairina moscha). 



Geese — Among the breeds of domestic 

 geese the Embden and Toulouse prob- 

 ably descended from the wild graylag 

 goose of Europe (Anser cinereus), while 

 the brown and white China geese seem 

 to derive their ancestry from the wild 



Eig. 10 HEREFORD BULL OF 60 YEARS AGO. THE WHITE MARKS ARE NOT PURE 



BUT MOTTLED 



hackles are horny and transversely 

 banded, and finally, although it crosses 

 readily with domestic fowls, the off- 

 spring are invariably sterile. The last 

 statement is also true of the Ceylon 

 jungle fowl {Gallus lafayettii) of Ceylon 

 and the Green or Java jungle fowl 

 (Gallus varius) of Java. 



Ducks — Naturalists are at one on the 

 point that nearly all our breeds of ducks 

 are descended from the wild mallard 

 (Anas hoschas) of Europe and America. 

 The mallard may be readily tamed and 

 has been bred in domestication for sev- 

 eral generations. In captivity the mal- 

 lard in the course of a few generations 

 acquires the gait of the domestic duck, 



Asiatic goose (Anser cygnoides). Ac- 

 cording to some authorities the common 

 domestic goose of India is a hybrid be- 

 tween these two species. The domes- 

 tic African goose may also be a mixture 

 of the same sort. The Canada or com- 

 mon wild goose (Bernicla canadensis) is 

 quite widely domesticated and is also 

 crossed on African and Toulouse breeds 

 to produce mongrels which are sterile. 

 Turkey— Three species of wild turk- 

 eys have been recognized; viz., Meleag- 

 ris gallopavo in the United States, M. 

 mexicana in Mexico and M. ocellata in 

 Central America. The first two seem to 

 be merely geographical races of a single 

 species and from this wild form our do- 



