216 



FOWLS. 



greatly improved ; the central regions of Africa 

 show splendid birds, with huge bodies and the 

 shortest possible legs. This variety is found in 

 the Brazil ; and at Zanzibar the mixture of blood 

 has produced a kind of bantam with a large 

 foot. The black-boned variety of poultry, and 

 that with the upright feathers — the 'frizzly 

 fowl ' of the United States — are also bred here. 

 Capons are manufactured by the blacks of Ma- 

 yotte and Nosi-b^h (Great Island). How is it 

 that the modern English will eat hens, when 

 their great grandfathers knew how to combine 

 the flavour of the male with the tenderness of 

 the female bird ? 



Peacocks are brought, as in the days of the 

 Ophir trade, from Cutch. Madagascar sends 

 hard, tasteless geese and common ducks, and 

 Mozambique supplies turkeys which are here 

 eaten by Arabs. A local superstition prevents 

 pigeon-breeding in the house: the birds are 

 found wild on the opposite coast, but Moslems 

 will not use them as food. The Muscovy duck, 

 an aborigine of the Platine Valley, has of late 

 years been naturalized — it is a favourite with 

 Africans, who delight in food which gives their 

 teeth and masticatory apparatus the hardest and 

 the longest labour. The only gallinaceous bird 



