A Cha'pter on Fowls. 539 
were laboring under high pressure to bring it to sudden and sure 
perfection. In two months from the middle of June, most of the 
growth is attained, and another month finds it loaded with ears 
matured for the use of man. 
Propitious is the climate where the lines have fallen to tcs in 
pleasant places. The cold and snows of winter, as well as the 
heat and fertility of summer, our grasses, and grains, and agricul- 
ture, alike demand our gratitude to their beneficent Author. 
A CHAPTER ON FOWLS. 
Hybrids. — The variation of size, form and plumage, so remark- 
able among the different breeds of domestic fowls, has been usually 
attributed to the action of physical agents on a single original 
species. This supposition, however, is now found to be untenable; 
for the best ornithologists, and those, too, who have no view to 
collateral generalization, have succeeded in tracing this family of 
birds to, at least, ten different species. Without appealing to un- 
necessary details, it is sufficient to observe, that independently of 
certain admitted changes as the results of domestication, these 
birds are in a far greater degree modified by the power possessed 
by their several species, (so far, at least, as the experiment has 
been extended,) of mingling with each other, and producing a 
fertile hybrid progeny. Hence, in a great measure, these inter- 
minable varieties of exterior form, size and color, now every where 
familiar. 
The tailless fowl, (gallus ecaudafus,) has been triumphantly 
quoted as an evidence of the power of climate and locality to pro- 
duce changes, not only of plumage, but of anatomical conformation. 
This bird is deficient in the last dorsal vertebrae, and consequently 
has no tail. But it was asserted, even by some naturalists, that 
this fowl was originally possessed of a tail, but lost it on being 
sent from England to Virginia, and domesticated in the latter 
country. More recent investigations, however, have proved that 
it is a wild native species of Ceylon. — Temminc/c. 
The fowl with rumpled or inverted feathers, which was long 
regarded as a mere accidental variety, is now believed to be a 
distinct species, and a native of Guiana. It braeds with all other 
domestic fowls, and the offspring is prolific, without end. 
Fortunately, for the further elucidation of this question, the 
continent of America produces a family of gallinaceous birds — 
the alectors of ornithologists — among which the very same inter- 
mixture of species takes place, and consequent fertile offspring, 
as we have remarked, in the several species of domestic fowls. 
