ADVEKTISEMENT. 



THE researches requisite to complete the volume on 

 " Ornamental and Domestic Poultry" naturally put the 

 writer in possession of many a clue towards the better 

 understanding of the natures of other domestic, captive, 

 and familiar birds. The following pages may therefore 

 be looked upon as an almost necessary sequel to the 

 former work. The object has been to ascertain the 

 place which certain genera and species are likely 

 eventually to take, in respect to their association with 

 mankind, and to obtain a cognizance of the circum- 

 stances most immediately connected with that relation- 

 ship. The writer is fully aware that it is not easy for 

 him to answer and explain several of the objections 

 that may be urged against the theoretical views he has 

 ventured to state ; but he is also both extensively read 

 and practically experienced in the still greater difficul- 

 ties and inconsistencies of the progressive hypothesis 

 of domesticated creatures. What zoology, in its sub- 

 servience to the requirements of man, now wants, is a 

 series of widely-extended experiments : unknown zoo- 

 logical capabilities, and the results of untried zoological 

 combinations are, at the present date, as little to be 

 guessed at as were those of chemistry a hundred years 



