PHEASANTS 



condition long after it has ceased to exist as a wild animal, 

 owing to the rate at which these animals are being destroyed 

 in Greenland, as stated by Dr. Hayes, and also by Mr. R. 

 Brown in a paper published in the Zoological Society's Pro- 

 ceedings, May 28, 1868, p. 352. He says, " They are 

 slaughtered indiscriminately by the natives, these improvi- 

 dent people, in nine cases out of ten, leaving the hides 

 and flesh, and only taking the tongues." The fallow deer 

 makes a near approach to the condition of a domestic 

 animal, but fails to become perfectly so. 



Many species of deer are brought from Asia and America, 

 and thrive in Europe and Australia ; antelopes from Africa 

 and Asia thrive in Europe and Australia, and among birds 

 from Asia we have pea-fowl, pheasants, ducks, and geese, 

 of many species, acclimatized in Europe, but not one known 

 case have we of either of the above-mentioned mammals 

 or birds ever having been domesticated; while, on the 

 other hand, we may import wild animals and acclimatize 

 them — that is, breed from them, and rear their progeny 

 without the slightest chance of bringing them (the progeny) 

 under domestication. 



Animals to become domesticated must be of those kinds 

 which are easily changed, and subject to great variety 

 amongst themselves — in fact, of a plastic nature. 



What has been done towards domesticating the peacock 

 or guinea-fowl in this country amounts to literally or really 

 nothing. It is ti'ue that they are acclimatized and breed 

 freely here, but they are anything but what may fairly be 

 called domesticated birds ; certainly they are not so wild 

 as pheasants, and although these will when bred tame feed 

 from the hand, like common fowls, yet they cannot be 

 called domesticated. That efforts are made all over the 

 world to tame and domesticate wild animals — and doubt- 

 less our species always were aiming at that object — there 



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