New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-01-08

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE HAS JUST
PASSED BILL TO ENLARGE THE SCOPE OF
THE FISH COMMISSIONS WORK so AS
TO MAKE IT INCLUDE THE PRoPA-
CATION OF USEFUL FEATH-
Erred CREATURES.
Correspondence of The Boston Transcript.
viii the United States Fish Commission go
into the business of propagating game Dirds go
There is no doubt that it will do so IL the bill
providing for such an enlargement OF the scops
of its work becomes law. The measure passeu
the House last week. and now goes to the sen
ate.
Since 1880 the Fish Commission by artificial
Matching has raised the number or snad an
nuaIIv marketed from little over five million
to nearly twenty million. Representative Lacey
OF Oskaloosa Iowa, the author or the Dill re-
ferred to. believes that an equivalent increase
of the game birds Of the country coulu ne oo
tanned by similar methods. or course. IL Is not
practicable to put birds eggs by thousands into
Matching Jars and turn out the young ones
Wholesale but much can be accomplished. espe-
ciaIy with certain species, by suitable processes.
1t is urged that the availability OF certain
genera Of birds for ut least partial domest ,
ton has never been adequately testeu. IN
slider for example what has been done with tne
Jungle fowl" of India, which represents the
earliest ancestry Of all the chickens. IL Is
very wild bird of no great size. ana rays ohly
a few eggs. How wonderful the impro'elnee,.s
secured in this by artificial breeding wnicn
has developed a feathered creature that lays
practically all the year round produces us owl
weight in eggs every six weeks, ana Is ihouineu
as to coloring of both feathers ana eggs. ac-
cording TO the wish of the fancier! The SKY
blue or specked- pink hens egg is future pos
sbty.
POSSIBILITIES OF EVOLUTION
Let the naturalists Of the Fish and Game
Commission take hold OF this problem ana ny
following similar methods they may evolve
- .hnn nj
as turkey a turkey as large as young
ostrich and ad infnitum. The up-to-date
chicken Is to a great extent an artificial AMI
NAL It has been developed into series or
really extraordinary varieties, some or which are
equal in weight to good-siZed turkeys. Inc small
white egg Of the primitive jungle FOWL OF ihoia
has been transformed into large brown egg,
most priced for the breakfast table. White
chickens unknown in nature, frequent in
the farm yard. For some reason not at all UNI
derstood dOmesticatiOn has tendency 10 pro-
duce whiteness-as witness white cats, Wnlte
dogs, white rabbits. white mice, etc. While tui
KEYS are not uncommon, and white ducks Wnicn
do not exist in nature, are everyday DIrds' Inc
white Picking ducks are as big as ordinary geese
Why for example should it not be feasible
to establish the common quail on OASIS OF
semi-domestication? Let the Fish Commission
begin at one of the Matching stations with
coyey of these birds for starter. They are
specially available for the purpose because they
are so prolific: as many as twenty-six eggs were
found by Professor Robert Ridgway. of the
It is easy to imagine future quail hatchery
thus established. with a series OF gas incubators
in operation the newly Matched birds being car
ried after a continuous method. through warm
room for drying their feathers. and thence out
into the open air. where they would be fed and
cared for until able to look out for themselves
In this way they would be protected from the
enemies which destroy most of the young. in the
egg or out of it. under natural conditions. Ac-
cording to no other principle Is the method
adopted for the Matching Of young Holsters.
hain ~
at Woods Hole every summer.
You see game birds are threatened by va
riety of dangers during infancy; Snakes. rats
and other predatory animals articularly
schoolboys-attack them capturing the eggs
and young other birds also devour them. And
it is obvious that in the way described such
dangers to birdlife would be almost wholly done
away with. The liberated adoescent Holsters
have passed their period OF greatest peril, and
so likewise it will be with semi-domestcated
quail and other feathered species AS matter
of course a large percentage of the artifcially
bred birds will be kept for eSg-laying and thus |
the stock will be rapidly and indefinitely in
creased Small beginnings may make big end |
ings as Poor Richard remarked. The Fish |
Commission began with a few shad fry: it |
planted 3000GOG00 in the rivers in 1898
AN INCREASED NUMBER OF EGGS
BY artificial breeding game birds may be In |
duced to lay a greatly increased number OF eggs. |
lust as the female descendant of the primitive |
chicken has been persuaded to produce at least
six times the number of potential offspring |
yielded by her primitive ancestress of the for |
ests of India. Here-if this expectation should |
be realized-is the opportunity for the incuba- |
tor. When human beings learned to nourish |
their progeny with the milk Of other animals |
their rate of propagation was multiplied, mas |
much as the mother could go on with the bust |
ness of child bearing unmpeded by the neces- |
sity of affOrding nourshment to offspring al |
ready brought into the world. A similar benefit |
where birdlife Is concerned. is afforded by the |
incubator which attends to the Matching Of
eggs already produced while the maternal fowl |
continues to lay.
This il by no means an avicultural ppedream, |
as Chimmie Fadden would express it, The United |
States Fish Commission has been |