232 FOWLS. Chap. VII. 



that have five toes and white ears." 9 In the fifteenth century 

 several breeds were known and described in Europe; and in 

 China, at nearly the same period, seven kinds were named. A 

 more striking case is that at present, in one of the Philippine 

 Islands, the semi -barbarous inhabitants have distinct native 

 names for no less than nine sub-breeds of the Game Fowl. 10 

 Azara, 11 who wrote towards the close of the last century, states 

 that in the interior parts of South America, where I should not 

 have expected that the least care would have been taken of 

 poultry, a black-skinned and black-boned breed is kept, from 

 being considered fertile and its flesh good for sick persons. 

 Now everyone who has kept poultry knows how impossible it is 

 to keep several breeds distinct unless the utmost care be taken 

 in separating the sexes. Will it then be pretended that those 

 persons who in ancient times and in semi-civilized countries took 

 pains to keep the breeds distinct, and who therefore valued them 

 would not occasionally have destroyed inferior birds and occa- 

 sionally have preserved their best birds? This is all that is 

 required. It is not pretended that any one in ancient times 

 intended to form a new breed, or to modify an old breed accord- 

 ing to some ideal standard of excellence. He who cared for 

 poultry would merely wish to obtain, and afterwards to rear, 

 the best birds which he could ; but this occasional preservation 

 of the best birds would in the course of time modify the breed, 

 as surely, though by no means as rapidly, as does methodical 

 selection at the present day. If one person out of a hundred 

 or out of a thousand attended to the breeding of his birds, 

 this would be sufficient ; for the birds thus tended would soon 

 become superior to others, and would form a new strain ; and 

 this strain would, as explained in the last chapter, slowly have 

 its characteristic differences augmented, and at last be con- 

 verted into a new sub-breed or breed. But breeds would often be 

 for a time neglected and would deteriorate ; they would, however, 

 partially retain their character, and afterwards might again 

 come into fashion and be raised to a standard of perfection 



9 Rev. E. S. Dixon, in his ' Orna- zation,' separately printed, p. 6 ; first 

 mental Poultry,' p. 203, gives an account read before the Brit. Assoc, at Oxford, 

 of Columella's work. 1860. 



10 Mr. Crawfurd « On the Relation of " « Quadruples du Paraguay,' torn, 

 the Domesticated Animals to Civili- ii. p. 324. 



