THE CHIEF KINDS OF POULTRY
“Different kinds of poultry, the originals of our domestic species, are
living to this day in a wild state in the forests of Asia, notably in
India, and in the Philippine Islands and Java. The most noteworthy is
the Bankiva or red jungle fowl. In shape, plumage, and habits the male
bird bears a striking resemblance to the common rooster of our
poultry-yards; but in size it is smaller even than the partridge. It
has a scalloped red comb, a tail of arched plumage, and a neck
ornamented with a falling tippet of bright, golden-red feathers. This
graceful little cock, irritable and full of fight, has the habits of
ours. He struts proudly at the head of his flock of hens, over whose
safety he watches with extreme care. If hunters range the forest, or if
some dog prowls in the neighborhood, the vigilant bird, quick to
perceive, suspects an enemy. He immediately flies to a high branch and
thence gives forth a cry of alarm to warn the hens, which hastily
conceal themselves under the leaves or crouch in the hollows of trees
and wait motionless until the danger is past. To get within gun-shot of
these birds is well-nigh impossible, and to capture them one must have
recourse to the same snares one uses for catching larks.”
“A fowl smaller than a partridge, and that they catch in the woods with
snares for larks,” remarked Jules, “ought to be a very pretty bird, but
not of much use if raised in poultry-yards. Does our poultry come from
such a small kind as that?”
“It certainly comes either from the Bankiva fowl or from other kinds
just as small that live in a wild state in the forests of Asia; but
when and how the hen and the cock became domesticated is wholly
unknown. From the dawn of history man has been in possession of the
barnyard fowl, at least in Asia, whence later the species came to us
already domesticated. During long centuries, improved by our care,
which assures it abundant food and comfortable shelter, the original
small species has produced numerous varieties differing much in size
and plumage. They are classed in three groups: the small, the medium,
and the large.
“To the first group belongs the bantam or little English fowl, about
the size of a partridge. It is a beautiful bird with short legs that
let the tips of the wings drag on the ground, quick movements, gentle
and tame habits. Its eggs, proportioned to the small size of the hen,
weigh scarcely thirty grams apiece, while those of other hens weigh
from sixty to ninety grams each. These pretty little pullets are raised
rather as ornaments to the poultry-yard than for the sake of their
diminutive eggs.”
“These little fowl,” observed Louis, “look from their size like the
primitive kind.”
“Yes, it was about like that they looked when man took it into his head
to tame the wild fowl. In the poultry-yards of those times lived, not
the large species of our day, but birds as small in body and as quick
on the wing as the partridge. I leave you to imagine what care and
vigilance were necessary in order not to frighten these timid little
fowl and cause them to go back to the woods that they still
remembered.”
“It must have been as much trouble,” said Louis, “as it would be for us
to tame a covey of partridges. Such an undertaking would not be easy.
We are a long way from those first attempts at domestication with our
hens of to-day, so tame, so importunate even, that they come boldly and
pick up crumbs under the very table.”
“The common poultry, that which stocks the greater number of farms,
belongs to the medium-sized breeds. Its plumage is of all colors, from
white to red and black. Its head is small and ornamented with a red
comb, sometimes single, sometimes double, coquettishly thrown to one
side. The cock, for its proud bearing and magnificent plumage, has no
equal among the other species. The common fowl is the easiest to keep,
for its activity permits it to seek and find for itself, by scratching
in the ground, a great part of its food in the form of seeds and worms.
It may be found fault with for its wandering proclivities, favored by a
strong wing which it avails itself of to fly over hedges and fences, to
go and devastate the neighboring gardens.
“Among the other medium-sized species which, associated with the common
fowl, are found in poultry-yards as ornaments rather than as sources of
profit, I will name the following:
“First, the Paduan fowl, recognizable by its rich plumage and
particularly by the thick tuft of feathers that adorns its head. This
beautiful headdress of fine plumage, so proudly spread out in fine
weather, is, when once wet by rain, nothing but an ungraceful rag,
heavy and tangled, which tires the bird and makes the rustic life of
the poultry-yard impossible as far as it is concerned.
“The Houdan fowl wears a thickly tufted top-knot which is thrown back
over the nape of the neck. Sometimes this headdress covers the eyes so
completely that the bird cannot see in front nor sidewise, but only on
the ground, which makes it uneasy at the slightest noise. The plumage
is speckled black and white, with glints of purple and green. The
cheeks and the base of the beak are draped with little upturned
feathers. Each foot has five toes instead of four, the usual number—not
counting the cock’s spur, which is simply a horn, a fighting weapon,
and not a toe. Three of the toes point forward and two backward.
“The fowl of la Flèche, so renowned for the delicacy of its flesh and
its aptness for fattening, has no crest and is long-legged, with black
plumage of green and purple luster. The legs are blue and the comb
rises in two little red horns.
“Similar but better developed horns, accompanied by a thick headdress
of feathers, adorn the Crève-cœur species. The hen is a beautiful
black; the cock wears, against body plumage of the same dark color, a
rich gold or silver tippet.
“Finally, to the large species belongs the Cochin-China, an ungraceful
bird, with very strong body and shapeless and disordered plumage,
generally reddish white. Its eggs are brownish in color.”