SOME LESSER DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 101 



THE BARNYARD FOWL 



Though clock, 

 To tell when night draws hence, I've none, 



A cock 

 I have, to sing how day draws on; 



A hen 

 I keep, which, creeking day by day, 



Tells when 

 She goes her long white egg to lay. 



HERRICK. 



At what early period of their civilization the people of 

 Scotland added the fowl to their domestic wealth is unknown, 



Fig. 24. Scottish breeds of poultry Scots Greys (to right), and Scottish Dumpies 

 (to left). About T V nat. size. 



although it was found in Britain by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. 

 In any case as the varieties of the barnyard fowl have arisen 

 from the Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus bankiva] of India and 

 south-eastern Asia, and as it was there domesticated more 

 than a thousand years before our era, there would be little 

 need to mention it in connection with Scotland, were it not 

 that in our land the influence of man has created two peculiar 

 local races. 



The least distinctive of these the Scots Grey (Fig. 24) 

 is a bird with upright and graceful carriage, moderately long 



