EUROPEAN BREEDS. 139 
in their prime when most fowls are too old for use; they 
are long-lived. A hen has been known to bring up two 
broods in a season when she was six years old. ‘hey are 
most remarkable as foragers, being very active, industri- 
ous workers; if they do not improve your garden, they 
will find a good deal of their food on a farm or good run. 
As table fowl, their praises have been often sounded. 
They are second to none, and their cross with game pro- 
duces a table fowl of absolutely supreme merit. 
GAME FOWLS. 
While the Asiatic, Leghorns, Hamburgs, Polands, and 
a host of other breeds, each have their champion advo- 
cates, each claiming for their particular favorites all the 
profitable good qualities; there are but few who advocate 
the cause of the Game fowl], and really but few who fully 
understand the superior qualities of this Royal Bird. 
The origin and nationality of the Game fowl have always 
been, and yet remain, a mooted question. 
The record of Game fowls is as old as the oldest writ- 
ten history, wherein we find that the Persians, Greeks, 
Romans, and a host of other nations, each had their na- 
tive Game fowls. 
Games were known to the Britons, and cock-fighting 
was carried on in England prior to Casar’s invasion, and 
hundreds of years prior to the Christian era, cock-fight- 
ing was an established insititution with the Greeks and 
Persians. China, Java, and the entire East Indies each 
had their native Game fowls. 
Therefore, all theories advanced by naturalists asto the 
origin of the Game fowl are wholly speculative. 
The Game fowl was regarded as sacred to the gods in 
ancient times, and was used in ancient military schools 
