( 391 ) 
XVII I . — On the question^ whether Domestic Poul- 
try were bred among the ancient Jews. 
By the Rev. David Scot, M.D. Minister of Corstorphine. 
(Read 6th March 1830.; 
t^ocKs and hens are the most common, as well as useful, 
of those tame fowls which we understand by the phrase do- 
mestic poultry, though ducks, geese, and even turkeys, are 
not excluded. 
To us, with whom cocks and hens are so familiar, and 
who see them every day about the barn-yards of the farmer, 
or about the doors of the cottager, if we be brought up in 
the country, it may seem strange to doubt whether these 
fowls were bred among the ancient Jews. 
There is, however, strong reason to think, that, for a long 
time, they did not know that there were such fowls, far less 
were accustomed to breed them. In the rural economy of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, — in the sojourning of their de- 
scendants in Egypt, — in their continuance for forty years 
in the Arabian desert, — and in their settlement in the land 
of Canaan, till the Babylonish captivity, — it is not certain 
that they are mentioned or alluded to. Turtle-doves and 
tame pigeons seem to be all the birds which they kept for 
common and religious uses. 
