PART I. THE POULTRY INDUSTRY 



CHAPTER I 

 NATURE AND USES OF POULTRY 



Classes of domestic birds. ^ Birds in domestication are divided 

 according to their relations to men into three general classes : 

 Poultry, Pigeons, and Cage Birds. This book is concerned with 

 pigeons and cage birds only in so far as discussion of the con- 

 trasting characters of poultry and the other two classes serves to 

 illustrate the nature and emphasize the usefulness of poultry. 



Kinds of poultry. The word "poultry"^ is the name of a 

 group of domestic birds so different in some respects that from a 

 naturalist's standpoint their inclusion in one group seems arbitrary 

 and artificial, warranted perhaps by convenience but not justified 

 on any scientific principle. Besides the more familiar kinds, as to 

 the position of which in this group there is no disagreement, a few 

 others not so well known are included in it by authorities on poul- 

 try culture. The group as thus made up includes fowls, ^ turkeys, 

 guineas, peafowls, pheasants, ostriches, ducks, geese, and swans. 



Common characters of poultry. Birds of the poultry group are 

 alike in the several characteristics which determine adaptability to, 

 and a high degree of usefulness in, domestication. 



I . They are terrestrial in habit, — some naturally, others as a 

 result of modifications of structure under domestication. F"owls, 

 turkeys, guineas, peafowls, and pheasants are land birds with no 

 power of sustained flight. The aquatic habit of ducks and geese of 



1 Bmi is the generic term applying to all feathered creatures. Fowl, which 

 once had as wide significance, is now applied to the most common kind of domes- 

 tic bird, — to cocks and hens, and in dead poultry especially to hens. 



^ The term applies to living birds and also to their flesh as food for man. It is 

 properly collective in meaning, for though used to refer to a single kind of birds, 

 when so used it does not identify that kind, but merely indicates that it is one of 

 the several kinds comprised in the poultry group. 



S 



