File:The American farmer. A complete agricultural library, with useful facts for the household, devoted to farming in all its departments and details (1882) (14597492098).jpg

Identifier: americanfarmerco02flin (find matches)
Title: The American farmer. A complete agricultural library, with useful facts for the household, devoted to farming in all its departments and details
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Flint, Charles L. (Charles Louis), 1824-1889 Miles, Manly, 1826-1898
Subjects: Agriculture
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., R. H. Park
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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s or more enterprising breeders of poultry in this country and Englandhave been endeavoring m various ways to improve the domestic fowl, forming new breedsfor this purpose, domesticating wild birds and importing new races already domesticated in ,other countries. Many foreign breeds have in this way been widely disseminated, such as the Asiaticfowls, the Aylesbury, Rouen, and Pekin Ducks, the Toulouse, Hong Kong, and BremenGeese, the Bronze Turkey, etc. There still remain, both in this country and Europe, many desira-ble kinds of native fowl which might easily be tamed and made valuable breeds for domesticuse; and it would not be strange if a few years glimpse into the future would show us many 440 THE AMERICAN FARMER. varieties in common use tliat are now only known as wild fowls, such as the Black, the Can-vas-back, the Wood Duck, the various kinds of Wild Turkeys, Geese, Pheasants, Quail, thePrairie Hen (known as the Pinnated Grouse), the Partridge, etc., all of which a few genera-
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EUEOPEAN QUAIL. tions of domestication would improve in size, quality, and fineness of flesh, as experience hasshown with our domestic fowls of to-day. It is a well-known fact among bird fanciers and breeders of the wild fowl, that none ofthe large domesticated breeds of ducks were in a wild state larger than the average Canvas- POrLTRY. 441 back duck or Mallard, but by long domestication are found to be one-third or lialf as largeagain as these are at the present time. It is generally admitted by ornithologists that our domestic fowls are descended fromthe wild jungle fowls of the East Indies. The various species of the Game fowl still retainmuch of the form, color, combative propensity, and courage of this wild species. The Jun-gle fowl, known as Gallus Bankiva, resembles most of all the wild varieties our commonBlack-red Game, and that fowl is regarded as the immediate parent of this variety, fromwhich so many sub-varieties have been bred by selection or crossing with others. Iiite

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