D BIRDS

Domestication of Animals mainly accomplished by the Aryan Race;
Small Amount of Such Work by American Indians.--Barnyard Fowl:
Mental Qualities; Habits of Combat.--Peacocks: their Limited
Domestication.--Turkeys: their Origin; tending to revert to the
Savage State.--Water Fowl: Limited Number of Species domesticated;
Intellectual Qualities of this Group.--The Pigeon: Origin and
History of Group; Marvels of Breeding.--Song Birds.--Hawks and
Hawking.--Sympathetic Motive of Birds: their AEsthetic Sense;
their Capacity for Enjoyment.

It is an interesting fact that about all the work of domestication which
has been done by man has been accomplished by the peoples of Asia and
mainly by the Aryan race. The American Indians tamed the llama and
alpaca and a few species of native plants; even where their habits were
prevailingly sedentary they domesticated no birds. It was left for
Europeans to make use of the wild turkey. Our primitive people had the
same chance to tame ducks and geese as the folk of the Old World. They
appear, however, to have lacked all capacity for such endeavors. The
same lack of disposition to capture and tame wild creatures is
noticeable among the characteristic peoples of Africa; all of which
serves to show that the domesticating art, at least as applied to
animals, is peculiar to the higher-grade folk of the Old World.

Of all the birds which have been domesticated, our common barnyard fowl
has been by far the most useful to man. It has become in a way
interwoven with his life to a degree found only in a few of our barnyard
animals. Next after the pigeons and the pigs it has been most deeply
impressed by the breeder's art. The wild species whence it sprang is a
small creature, laying but few eggs and with but a slight tendency to
accumulate fat. From this parent stock varieties have been bred which
attain in some cases to eight or ten times the weight of the ancient
form. They have, moreover, lost the fierce combative spirit which
characterizes their ancestors and which by selection has been preserved
and intensified in our breeds of game-cocks.

[Illustration: The Original Jungle Fowl (_Gallus bankiva_)
and Some of His Domestic Descendants]

It is an interesting fact that our barnyard fowl is the only species of
a large family of birds which has been truly domesticated. The kindred
pheasants and grouse, though abounding in the Old World and t