184 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
seems like a blind selection by Nature. The process as developed 
by Nature is slow and uncertain. What is called Artificial 
Selection—that is, selection by man—is much more rapid and 
much more certain. All animals undergo change—modification of 
structure, etc.—by change of environment, but they undergo a 
much greater degree of change by breeding. Artificial selection 
simply means that man has stepped in where Nature left off and by 
observation and experiment he can do in a few years what Nature 
accomplished in thousands of years. The modifications or changes 
that may take place in birds and fowls in a comparatively short 
time are perfectly wonderful. 
It is a generally accepted fact that all the numerous breeds 
and varieties known to-day have been evolved from the original 
jungle fowl which is still to be found in India in a wild state. 
The Gallus ferrugineus, or jungle fowl, not only bears a resemblance 
to the domestic fowl, but breeds freely with it, so that while the 
two are far removed in time they are not essentially different. 
There is a doubt about the Brahma and the Cochin being de- 
scendants of the jungle fowl, but all other varieties can be clearly 
traced to the original Asian bird. 
A clear proof of the ready modifications which fowls undergo in 
the hands of man by artificial selection may be seen in the fact 
that many of the best-known varieties are of very recent date, 
and their pedigrees—or foundation stock—are well known. To 
this purely modern breed of fowl belong the Wyandotte, the 
Orpington and the Rhode Island Red. 
Before the time of Darwin another naturalist, Mendel by name, 
worked out a science of breeding applicable to plants as well as 
animals, but this system had more to do with colouring and 
with superficial changes than with structural modification, and 
it is of too technical a nature for discussion in a popular book. 
Well-known scientific breeders, however, like Mr Oscar Smart, of 
England, and Mr Duncan Forbes Laurie, of Australia, employ the 
Mendellian theory in working out their problems, and their nuggets 
of gold, translated into small change, gradually get into circulation 
among the rank and file of poultrymen. 
