CHAPTEE XXII. 



THE Domestication of Wild Birds. 



The various breeds of fowls which have been described in the foregoing pages 

 are undoubtedly all descended from a few wild forms. In some oases we «re al- 

 most able to trace the history of a breed back to its original domestication ; but 

 More often we are led into the dim mists of pre-historic times, from which we see 

 man emerging, already surrounded by his ilocks and herds. Of such non-migra- 

 tory races as the Chinese and Egyptians neither history nor tradition can point 

 to the time when they, had no domestic animals. With the nomadic races which 

 settled the western countries, however, their earliest animals were, of course, 

 such as could accompany them in their frequent pilgrimages and assist them iu 

 their quest for food, of which the most valuable and the earliest tamed would 

 naturally be the dog. Indeed, the remains of the dog are found associated with 

 the earliest known human remains. Fowls could only have been added to their 

 possessions after they had relinquished their nomadic habits, and become a pas- 

 toral, if not an agricultural people. Hence we should expect to find the original 

 home of the domestic fowl among those people who have longest been tillers of 

 the soil, or in Egypt, China, and India, and in these countries we find that the 

 common fowl, the goose, duck, and peafowl, have been domesticnted from time 

 immemorial. As civilization progressed westward this list was swelled by the 

 addition of the turkey and the guinea-fowl. The question now aiises, are these 

 all the varieties of birds that may be profitably added to our poultry-yards? In 

 the discussion of this question it is necessary to consider a few of the points in- 

 volved in the domestication of a wild animal. 



In the first place, the animal so domesticated must possess some quality of use 

 or beauty which will give it an actual value to man, and, to render this value 

 permanent, it must possess the ability and disposition to perpetuate its kind un- 

 der the changed conditions to which it is subjected in domestication. This has 

 been found the fatal objection to the taming of many kinds of birds and quad- 

 rupeds — that they would not breed in confinement. In Reference to this point 

 Mr. Darwin adduces numerous examples, chiefly drawn from the experience in 

 the management of wild animals and birds at the London Zoological Gardens, 

 the old Surrey Gardens, and the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. In the aviaries of 

 these institutions birds of prey have very seldom been knoTvn to couple, and 

 have stiU more infrequently produced fertile eggs ; of the smaller graminivorous 

 birds the canary-bird is almost the only one' out of many species which have 

 been kept in confinement, that has bred with any regularity ; several species 

 have produced, fertile hybrids with the canary, but yet refuse to reproduce their 

 own kind. The parrot, one among the longest lived of birds, and one which ha« 

 long been tamed, yet " breeds so rarely that the event has been thought worfli 



