Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-07

The feathered tenants Of the farm yard,
reclaimed from their original state of de-
pendence, and pensioners Oh our bounty, are
peculiarly interesting. Though less decid-
edly important than the COW, the sheep, or
the pig, they still rank among the useful;
their flesh and eggs are esteemed as whole
some and delicate food, and most are re-
marked for grace and beauty. The original
stock or species from which our common
fowl is derived is unknown. BY some writ
ers il was supposed 10 be of Persian origin;
but the period of their servitude is hidden
in the remotest ages of the world. The ac-
QUESTION Of the fowl species has not, in all
probability, been an easy conquest; TO sue
coed in bringing them into complete bond
age, a long series Of attempts and cares have
doubtless preceded the successes we now en-
Joy, without being acquainted to whom we
are indebted for them. The species has been
since propagated and introduced into gener-
al use, from the burning climate Of India TO
the frozen zone. They may be looked upon
as a blessing 10 humanity.
Among every polished nation on earth,
and even among nations half civilized, but
united among sedentary societies, there is no
country habitation around which fowls,
more or less numerous, are not met with,
which man rears, shelters and nourish 3 8,
and which are called cocks and hens. They
are species which art has almost entirely
wrested from nature; fowls are everywhere
seen in domestic state, and wild ones are
scarcely to be found anywhere; it is not long
since il is positively known where the latter
still exists in small quantities. Oliver de
Series says, Among the moderns, | am the
first that had seen fowls in a state of liberty.
On my return from a first voyage TO Guinea
in 1895, / published a note on the subject of
the wild cock and hen, which l have every
reason 10 think natives of the hottest coun-
tries Of the new continent In travelling
over the gloomy and inextricable forests Of
Guinea, when the dawn Of day began to APP
pear, amidst the immense woods Of lofty
trees which fall under the stroke of time
only, had often heard Growing similar to
that of our cocks, but only weaker. The
considerable distance which separated me
from any inhabited place, could not allow
one to wink this growing was produced by
domesticated birds; and the natives Of these
parts, who were in company with me, as
sured me that il was the voice Of wild cocks.
every one Of the colony Of Cayenne, who
have gone very far up the country, give the
same account Of the fact. Some have met
with few of this wild fowl, and have seen
one myself. They have the same forms, the
heshy comb on the head, the gait Of our
fowls only they are much smaller being
hardly larger than the common pigeon !;
their plumage is brown or rufous." Some
older travellers have spoken before OF these
wild fowl Of South America. The Spanish
Acosta, provincial of the Jesuits Of Peru,
has positively said, that fowls existed there
before the arrival of his couStrymen, and
thss they were called in the language Of the
country talpd and their eggs p0RtO. The an
cient Mexican had reduced these small fowls
10 demonstration. They called them, as Gen
eralSarreri informs us, ehidochidldccd, and
he adds that they were similar 10 our do
mesticated fowl, except that they had brown
ish feathers, and that they are rather smaller.
A fresh testimony, that Of a traveller who
has been all over Dutch Guinea after me, is
asain come in support of facts already Ger
tain. Captain Steadman has observed that
the natives rear a very small species Of fowls,
Nhosed feathers are rutfied, and which seem
10 be natives Of that country"
Il is then an indisputable fact that tribe
Of wild fowl, very much like our cocks and
hens, exists in the inland parts of South
America. One cannot reasonably suppose
that this tribe springs from birds of the same
genius which Europeans have transported
thither, since they are only met with very
far from any inhabited place; that there is a
remarkable difference in the size of these
and the common fowl, and that, according to
the assertion Of Acosta, they existed in Peru
before the arrival Of the Spaniards. But a
learned traveller, 10 whom omithology in
particular is indebted for many capital dis
coveries, NJ. Sonneret has again found the
species of the wild fowl on the antique land
OF India, in the mountains Of the Gautes,
which separate Malabar from Coromandel
More successful than other travellers, NJ
Sonnerei took home too birds male and q
female OF the Indian tribe, and published a
description of them in his Travels to the In.
dies and China and he has taken them tC
be the primitive stock, whence had sprung
all the tribes Of our domestic fowl. he con-
CURED in the opinion of Button, that most
of our varieties Of domestic fowl have pro
ceeded from single type, and that the diff
ferences which we perceive among them
have resulted from accidents Of climate, do
mestication and crossing of varieties.
Sonneret, who did not, or would not
know Of any other species Of wild cock than
this-for he speaks slightly Of the authority
Of Dampier, who mentions that he saw
wild cocks in the Indian Archipelago
naturally enough concluded that in this
Jungle fowl he bad found the primeval
stock. Subsequent inquiries have, however
confirmed the statements Of Dampier, MOI
only as 10 the existence Of species Of wild
fowl in the Indian Archipelago, but Il Il
also admitted thai the Bankiva species IN
Java, and the Jago species of Sumatra, NOR.
nearly Approximate 20 our common tow
than that now under consideration, and &
which Sonnerei refers. Upon the whole i
seems that our varieties Of domestic few
pressed from mixtures Of original species
Practical observers arrive at much the same
conclusion on this point with scientific
naiuralizts. Ii Is thus, for instance, consid.
cred In India, that our game cock origin
ated from mixture Of the jungle cock with
the wild SPECIES in Malaga and Chittagong
Altogether, however, Il mus be admitted