CHAPTER XVIII 
FOOD VALUES 
jungle fowl] in its natural state in order to determine what 
is best for the modern domestic fowl, which is the product of 
many generations of artificial selective breeding and feeding by 
man. It is just possible that the original jungle fowl, from which 
all other breeds are supposed to have descended, would not have 
prospered if kept in captivity and fed on the diet of the domestic 
fowl of to-day. The jungle fowl would in all probability stand 
amazed—if not amused—at the extraordinary variety of foods 
presented to the egg-layer of modern times. But if one might 
hazard a guess about the food of the jungle fowl, one might with 
comparative safety say that it was partly animal and partly 
vegetable, and that the proportions would rarely be what we call 
a “ balanced ” diet, but more than likely a large choice of vegetable 
foods and a smaller selection of animal foods. Fortunately it 
matters little to us what foods the jungle fowl picked up, but one 
does know that none of it was cooked. 
To-day the domestic fowl, like the human being, has been kept 
for many generations on a mixed diet of cooked and raw foods. 
A comparatively recent discovery shows, however, that the modern 
fowl, inured through countless years to cooked food, thrives just 
as well—if not better—on raw foods. That, however, is another 
story. 
Where the domestic fowl is given full liberty—called free range 
—it will find a certain proportion of its food for itself. If it have 
both grass and arable land to roam over it will pick up not less 
than one-fourth of its food during some seven months of the year, 
and during the remaining months it will add to its daily menu in 
a smaller degree. From March to about the end of September the 
55 
L is not necessary to speculate on the probable food of the 
