CHAPTER II. 

 THE BREEDS. 



Origin of the Domestic Fowl. — ^When man lived in a primi- 

 tive state and was a savage, animals and birds were wild 

 also. The first step in advance came when he began to 

 realize the value of wealth and to bring animals under con- 

 trol and develop flocks and herds. He was still a wanderer 

 and a nomad. It was probably not until the necessity of 

 cooperative effort in protecting his wealth against enemies, 

 coupled with the increasing population, forced him to take 

 up settled life in villages, that birds were domesticated. 

 Poultry production was from the first, as it is now, essentially 

 a home industry. 



While it appears likely that fowls were first captured for 

 fighting purposes, and later domesticated for flesh and eggs, 

 the earliest actual reference to poultry states that the 

 Chinese Emperor Fu-Hsi, who lived from 3341 to 3227 B.C., 

 taught his people to breed fowls. ^ Cock-fighting is still a 

 favorite pastime among the native princes of India, from 

 whence our domestic fowls originally came. 



So far as records show, fowls were taken eastward nearly a 

 thousand years before they appeared in Europe. A Chinese 

 encyclopedia, said to have been compiled 1400 years before 

 Christ, makes mention of fowls as " creatures from the West." 

 "The first actual reference in Western literature to the fowl 

 occurs in the writings of Theognis and Aristophanes between 

 400 and 500 b.c."^ 



Progenitors of the Breeds. — Darwin considered that all 

 modern breeds of fowls were the offspring of a common 

 ancestor. The differences now noted between the phlegmatic 

 Cochin and the sprightly Leghorn, he considered to have 



' V. Fries, Abriss der Gesohichte ChinEis. 

 ^ Brown, Races of Domestic Poultry. 



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