THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
154 
In a previous paper (page 117) doubts were expressed as 
to how far the accidental deviations from one original 
type, caused by continuous breeding in-and-in, would be 
sufficient to account for the present multiplicity of per- 
mauent forms and characters among the inmates of our 
poultry-yards. But many will here say, that, even ad¬ 
mitting this among feres natures, these forms might still 
he fixed, and rendered permanent, by domestication, 
and the effects of their abode in a climate essentially at 
variance with the conditions of their native country. 
Tn some cases, indeed, acclimatization lias certainly 
wrought stronger metamorphoses; for, if we admit that 
dogs, as has been said of fowls, owe their descent in all 
their present families to one common ancestor, these 
changes cannot be disputed when we see the dog of 
Guinea almost destitute of hair, while that of the Esqui¬ 
maux is protected by a double casing of both hair and 
wool. But it sometimes happens that results that have 
been confidently relied on as evidence in favour of the 
wide range permitted to the produce of tlie animal 
kingdom, may prove, on examination, to give their 
weight to the other side of the question. The instances 
of the dog, just alluded to, certainly prove the elasticity 
with which Infinite Wisdom has endued all its works, so 
that life may be prolonged to the utmost possible extent; 
thus, also, the Ermine and Alpine Hare, among quad¬ 
rupeds, and the Ptarmigan, among birds, chauge their 
coloured summer garb, on the approach of winter, for 
coverings white as the snow around them, and thus 
only are they enabled to escape their numerous enemies. 
These are, however, hut temporary adaptations for 
certain temporary objects, and there is no permanent 
change whatever in the animal itself. The Esquimaux 
Dog would have had but a short career in a tropical 
climate, while the coatless inhabitant of that latter 
country would have perished within a few hours of his 
exposure to the ordinary climate of the Polar regions. 
The same changes are seen to occur with sheep, cattle, 
swine, and horses, there being in all these great piowers 
of adaptation to various degrees of temperature, and 
other circumstances of their existence. But with galli¬ 
naceous birds the case is totally different; for the Silk 
Fowls in our own yard, great-grandchildren of birds 
imported from Calcutta, have not varied in the character 
of a single feather from their original plumage, designed, 
doubtless, for the intense heat of an Indian climate; 
while, on the other hand, the English Game fowl, whose 
j feathers, when in high condition, are, as it were, glued 
together, retains this characteristic as fully and as per¬ 
fectly on the banks of the Ganges, as on those of the 
Thames. 
Fowls, therefore, we infer, are certainly not subject, in 
the same degree, to those powerful influences, which, in 
other members of the animal kingdom, effect such ex¬ 
traordinary changes in external appearance ; hitherto, 
at least, we have been unable to detect any instance 
that would authorise us to believe the contrary. Mere 
domestication, again, i. e., a state of subservience to the 
wants of man, however it may affect the disposition, 
does not appear to influence the form. 
June 2 . 
Up to this point, separatedly, we have regarded the 
causes by which many are led to uphold the idea, that 
to look for more than a single origin for all the different 
families of the poultry-yard was an unnecessary task. 
But, granting that neither the fortuitous produce of 
fowls in a wild state, nor their domestication, when they ' 
had once submitted to the caprice of man, would afford 
probability for the primitive unity of their stock,—might 
not this be possible, it may be asked, from their com- , 
bined operation ? The examples quoted as corrobo- ! 
rative of this view of the case, commonly refer to the 
improved breeds of cattle and swine—we except sbeep, 
because, although all our present varieties of the former , 
may possibly lie correctly assigned to the same pro- , 
genitor, with sheep there exist doubts on this head, ’ 
and it is not unlikely that they, too, as we are disposed [ 
to think of fowls, may have had a plurality of original 
parents. 
But with respect to cattle and swine, we would ask— 
Are the distinguishing features of excellence, presented 
to us at our agricultural exhibitions, of a fixed and per¬ 
manent character? Have we only to obtain a boar 
and sow of Mr. Fisher Hobbs’ improved Essex pigs, or 
a bull and a cow of first-class Shorthorns, to be enabled 
to fill our homesteads with stock, that, generation after 
generation, will repeat their parents’ merits ? The 
youngest farmer knows full well that such a course 
would end in bitter disappointment and that, without 
the constant infusion of fresh blood from approved 
races, rapid degeneracy invariably ensues. In a literal 
sense, therefore, we have no more thus established any 
new breed than we possess the powers of creation—a 
phrase, be it remembered, which certain French writers 
have not scrupled to apply to the result of scientific 
breeding. We have improved, and the advance has 
been prodigious; but cease our labours, and the relapse 
will be equally astonishing. 
In what we have now said, we are not forgetful that 
this observation may be made. In fowls, too, the intro¬ 
duction of fresh blood seems necessary—at any rate, the 
pages of “ The Poultry Book ” strongly enforce the im¬ 
portance of obtaining it whenever practicable. Un¬ 
doubtedly they do insist on this as an essential point 
in poultry management; and to maintain excellence in 
our yards for a continuous period it must, we apprehend, 
be had recourse to; but still, if we neglect this pre¬ 
caution, our poultry may not, it is true, produce such 
fine specimens, for they will probably lose weight, or 
show foul feathering, but the main distinctive features 
of the different families will remain in as marked a 
form as when we first had them—the Game fowl will 
still be a true Game fowl, for it does not pass to any 
other form, and so on throughout the list. A farmer in 
Yorkshire, for instance, has kept Golden Polands for 
forty years, and Golden Polands they still are, and, 
moreover, not bad birds of their class, even for these 
days of improvement; and yet crosses, it seems, have 
never been admitted. But we are inclined to believe 
that such apparently specific points of difference be¬ 
tween present varieties of cattle would be lost within a | 
