CHAPTER V 



POULTRY TYPES AND THEIR RELATIONS TO OBJECTS, CONDITIONS, 

 AND METHODS OF POULTRY KEEPING 



Reference has been made to the influence of certain types of 

 poultry on the development of the industry. It is necessary, before 

 questions of location, equipment, and methods are taken up, to 

 consider some properties of type which bear on these questions. 



What is type ? As used by poultrymen in a general sense the 

 term "type" denotes a fixed combination of qualities especially 

 adapted to definite results (as meat type, egg type, general- 

 purpose type, game type), these being the distinct types of fowls 

 to which nearly all breeds and varieties may be referred. 



Type and breed. In a state of nature birds of the same kind 

 living under the same conditions are, as a rule, of a common type. 

 They are of approximately the same size and color, and so nearly 

 alike that individuals are not easily distinguished. The type of the 

 wild bird is fixed by natural selection. The individual which in any 

 character differs greatly from the ordinary type is less likely to 

 live and produce offspring ; and when it does, the chance of its 

 meeting with a mate like itself is remote. Variation always tends 

 to be modified or lost in the common type. 



When birds are brought into domestication, variations occur more 

 frequently, and the conditions of the bird's life in domestication 

 prevent the general destruction of individuals which depart from 

 the usual type. As a result of the preservation of variations, and 

 of miscellaneous unions of individuals diverging from the general 

 type in many characters, a species in domestication soon reaches 

 a condition of mongrelism, the original combination of characters 

 becoming very rare, or perhaps entirely disappearing, and no fixed 

 combination replacing it. 



Among the numerous types occurring in a mongrelized species 

 some are more serviceable than others and some more pleasing to 

 the eye of the owner. I'^or one or both of these reasons a particular 



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