Domestic Fowls — Their Supposed Origin, 8fC. 457 
DOMESTIC FOWLS— THEIR SUPPOSED ORIGIN, &c. 
The feathered tenants of the farm-yard, reclaimed from their 
original state of dependence, and pensioners on our bounty, are 
peculiarly interesting. Though less decidedly important than the 
cow, the sheep or the pig, they still rank among the useful; their 
flesh and eggs are esteemed as wholesome and delicate food, and 
most are remarked for grace and beauty. 
The original stock or species from which our common fowl is 
derived is unknown. By some writers it was supposed to be of 
Persian origin; but the period of their servitude is hidden in the 
remotest ages of the world. The acquisition of the fowl species 
has not, in all probability, been an easy conquest; to succeed in 
bringing them into complete bondage, a long series of attempts 
and cares has doubtless preceded the successes we now enjoy, with- 
out being acquainted to whom we are indebted for them. The 
species has been since propagated and introduced into general use 
throughout the whole world, from east to west, from the burning 
climate of India to the frozen zone. They may be looked upon 
as a blessing to humanity. Among every polished nation on earth, 
and even among nations half-civilized, but united in sedentary 
societies, there is no country habitation around which fowls, more 
or less numerous, are not met with, which man rears, shelters 
and nourishes, and which are called cocks and hens. They are a 
species which art has almost entirely wrested from nature; fowls 
are everywhere seen in a domestic state, and wild ones are scarcely 
to he found anywhere; it is not long since it is positively known 
where the latter still exists in small quantities. 
Oliver de Serres says, "Among the moderns, I am the first that 
had seen fowls in a state of liberty. On my return from a first 
voyage to Guiana in 1795, I published a note on the subject of 
the wild cock and hen, which I have every reason to think natives 
of the hottest countries of the new continent. In travelling over 
the ixloomy and inextricable forests of Guiana, when the dawn of 
day began to appear, amidst the immense woods of lofty trees 
"whirh fall under the stroke of time only, I had often heard a 
cro ving, similar to that of our cocks, but only weaker. The con- 
sidv able distance which separated me from every inhabited place, 
could not allow one to think this crowing was produced by domes- 
ticated birds; and the natives of those parts, who were in com- 
pany with me, assured me it was the voice of wild cocks. Every 
one of the colony of Cayenne, who have gone very far up the 
country, give the same account of the fact. Some have met with 
a few of these wild fowl, and I have seen one myself. They have 
