236 
THE POULTRY BOOK. 
shown weighing nine pounds each, that three Aylesbury ducks would be exhibited 
weighing thirty pounds, a pair of turkeys nearly fifty pounds, and a couple of 
geese ^ exceeding half a hundredweight, he would have been regarded as a 
harmless enthusiast ; yet these weights have been reached, and doubtless will, in 
their turn, be surpassed. In addition to weight, other characteristics have been 
improved, early maturity has been encouraged, greater hardiness of constitution 
bestowed, an increased production of eggs secured. 
We are not desirous of converting every farmer into a breeder of ornamental or 
exhibition poultry ; but we do plead very strongly for the substitution of good 
short-legged table fowls, or of prolific layers, for the weedy stilty mongrels, neither 
good as market fowls nor valuable as egg producers, that now disgrace far too many 
of our farm-yards. Farmers unduly neglect this source of wealth. They too 
often keep worthless stocks of fowls under conditions not conducive to their well- 
doing, and complain that they do not pay the expenses of their keep. Some 
agriculturists, on the other hand, have found their fowls pay well ; but then their 
birds receive the same degree of attention that is given to the other specimens of 
valuable live stock. 
There is one great drawback to the profitable rearing of table fowls near 
London, namely, the want of a more direct communication between the rearers 
and the consumers. The middle men, or the market salesmen, swallow up a very 
large proportion of the profits. The producer reaps but a small return, the 
poulterer pays a high price, and has to reimburse himself by charging the consumer 
at a very exorbitant rate. Unfortunately, it is not easy to suggest how this state 
of things can be remedied. But the evil is one which bears heavily alike on the 
producers and consumers. The former are entirely in the hands of the salesman, 
who returns what sum he chooses for the fowls consigned to him, and the 
remuneration is of so poor a character that few farmers find it answer their 
purpose to send fowls to the London markets. Consequently, the tables of the 
metropolis are ill supplied, and poultry is far dearer than it should be, to the loss 
of all parties concerned except the salesman. 
THE DOMESTIC FOWLS OF INDIA. 
In the chapter on the Malay fowls, we have alluded to the general characters 
of the domesticated Indian varieties, some of which are of large size. There is, 
however, no evidence whatever of the existence of any wild type approaching the 
fowl termed by Temminck Gallus giganteus. The theory that every domesticated 
variety must have had its wild original, has given rise to the most erroneous 
suppositions, which, being repeated by writer after writer, have at last been 
accepted as facts, and statements have been made and implicitly believed, that 
the Bumpless, the Silk fowls, the Malays, and even the Crested breeds, have all 
had their wild progenitors roaming at large in the Eastern jungles. In the 
proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1832, Colonel Sykes described, under 
the name of the Kulm fowl, a large variety, domesticated in the Deccan; this has 
