ciles of man
that they can be truly domesticated. The success, however, which has
been attained in the case of the pigeons, which have been so far made
captive by the change of their instincts that they never depart far
from their cotes, seems to indicate that this tendency again to go
wild is by no means ineradicable. In other instances it will probably
disappear as it has in this by long-continued care in breeding. Our
successes with the geese, ducks, and swans, all of which belong to
genera characterized by the migratory habit, show how readily in the
course of time the old native instincts may be subordinated to the
will of man. Although the degree of the difficulty which will be
encountered in taming many wild forms may be far greater than that
which has been met in those which we have domesticated, there is no
reason whatever to believe that in any case it will be insuperable.

While all the creatures of the wilderness may by the breeder's art be
induced to vary in the conditions of captivity, the birds have shown
themselves more plastic in our hands than any other animals. In almost
every brood we find individuals possessing marked peculiarities of
form or plumage. In their mental qualities also there is a like range
of variation. Seizing upon these, the fancier can guide the quick
succeeding generations so as to cause the form to depart in the course
of a few years very far from its original aspect. With each step in
this succession of changes the readiness with which the species
responds to selective care increases. The results which have been
attained in our barnyard fowl and with the pigeons show how admirably
these creatures are fitted to obey the will of man when he has a mind
to take charge of their destiny.

Perhaps the greatest conquests which we have yet to make among the
birds will be won from the species which have the habit of dwelling
mainly or altogether upon the ground. These, as experience shows, can
be more readily brought to the uses of man than the species which are
free by their strong wings to wander through the realms of air. There
are very many of these ground birds the domestication of which has
never been fairly essayed. There are perhaps a hundred species which
in one part of the world or another might afford valuable additions to
our resources, those of ornament or of economy, and yet within three
centuries only one of these, the turkey, has been brought to the
domesticated state. Th