Our Domestic Birds

s. Where varieties are as numerous as in the fowl, which has about three hundred, and the pigeon, which has a much greater number, the differences between them are

ust be a more extended classification. Such a classification, growing gradually with the increase in the number of varieties, will not be consistent throughout.

ies retains its distinctive character through long ages because the individuals composing it can prod

kind, and so each species remains distinct; but if in a species there are many different types, such as we find in domestic fowls, the members of the species, when free to do so, mate as readily with types quite different from their own as with individuals exactly like them, and produce offspring of intermediate types with all the essential characters of the species. In domes

ered that species were not perfectly stable and were changing slowly. Geologists established the fact that the earth, instead of being only a few thousand years old, had existed for countless centuries. Among fossil remains of creatures unlike any now known they had found also other forms which appeared to be prototypes of existing species

organisms change slowly; that things of the same kind, separated and living under different conditions, may in time so change that they become separate spec

perhaps twice as long) and developed into quite different varieties will breed together as readily as those of the same variety. But when it is certain that the earth is so old that there has been ample

f different species are paired they produce only a few weak hybrids. Our domestic geese are probably descended from two wild varieties, but races that were not brought together for thousands of years after they were domesticated are perfectly fert

inity of varieties of the same species, separation and difference of development will eventually make of varieties distinct species, a union of which will produce

as one variety or as several varieties, according to conditions. If a part of a species becomes so separ

hing between a Brown Pit Game and a Brown Leghorn. The birds were smaller than most fowls seen in this country to-day. The prevailing color was a dull brown, because that color best conceals a small land bird from its enemies. Fowls that were domest

e in the wild state. Other peculiarities, too, such as large combs, crests, and feathered legs, would be developed in some lands and neglected in others. This is how it happe

e type may be established in from three or four to eight or ten years, according to the number of characters to be established as distinctive of the variety. Varieties are also made by crossing unlike individuals. This process is longer than the other, and sometimes requires a series of crosses to produce specimens approximating the ideal sought. After such specimens have be

t of various colors. This is the case still with some varieties. These shape-varieties are mostly the common types of certain countries or districts. Thus the Leghorn fowl is the common fowl

people who hold this view. This popular misconception of the nature of a breed is responsible for much of the inconsistency and confusion in the ordinary classifi

and in Fantail Pigeons there are six color-varieties-white, blue, black, red, yellow, and silver. Birds of the same breed (shape) and the same variety (color) may differ in some other character, as the form of the comb or the pres

re sometimes distinguished for general or special excel

mixtures of the distinct breeds with each other and with the old mongrel race. The greater part of such stock is so mixed that its relation to any established breed could not be determined or expressed, but systematic mixtures are sometimes made, and to describe these the followi

ed. If these in turn are mated to birds of the same pure breed, the offspring will have seven eighths of the blood of that breed. Animals bred in this way are called grades until the process has been car

of the making of breeds and varieties it is plain that absolute purity of blood is not a universal attribute of well-bred domestic birds. A thoroughbred animal is one that

stock, and that "pure-bred" should apply to all thoroughly bred races. The noun "Thoroughbred" is the name of a breed of horses. The adjective "thoroughbred" is common property. Writers on aviculture who wish to be accurate prefer it in many instances to "pure-

its type entirely. It might be so deteriorated that it was worth less than common mongrels; yet it is pure-bred stock. Another stock of the same variety might be bred for table qualities,