Chap. VII. THEIR PARENTAGE. 243 



though, they are well aware that their birds differ individually 

 and that by selecting the best birds for a few generations they, 

 can improve their stocks. 



An amateur writes 3 as follows: " The fact that poultry 

 have until lately received but little attention at the hands ol 

 the fancier, and been entirely confined to the domains of the 

 producer for the market, would alone suggest the improba- 

 bility of that constant and unremitting attention having been 

 observed in breeding, which is requisite to the consummating 

 in the offspring of any two birds transmittable forms not 

 exhibited by the parents." This at first sight appears true. 

 But in a future chapter on Selection, abundant facts will be 

 given showing not only that careful breeding, but that actual 

 selection was practised during ancient periods, and by barely 

 civilized races of man. In the case of the fowl I can adduce 

 no direct facts showing that selection was anciently practised ; 

 but the Romans at the commencement of the Christian era- 

 kept six or seven breeds, and Columella " particularly recom- 

 mends as the best, those sorts 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 every one 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, 



8 Ferguson's ' Illustrated Series of of the Domesticated Animals to Civili- 

 Rare and Prize Poultry,' 1854, p. vi. zation,' separately printed, p. (5; first 

 Preface. read before the Brit. Assoc, at Oxford, 



9 Per. E. S. Dixon, in his < Orna- 1860. 



mental Poultry,' p. 203, gives an ac- n 'Quadrupedes du Paraguay,' tern 



eount of Columella's work. ii. p. 324. 



10 Mr. Crawfurd ' On the Relation 



