Growing Wild Geese in Captivity
Wild geese mate in pairs. If they are to be bred successfully in captivity, they must have a place away from other animals, where they will not be disturbed. They will be more contented if located near a small pool or stream. A pair of wild geese is usually kept during the breeding season in a small, isolated inclosure containing a permanent water supply. Here the female will make her nest, lay her eggs, and hatch her brood. The male at this period is very savage and will vigorously resent any interference with his mate. Most wild geese in captivity lay but a few eggs, and the broods hatched are small. There are seldom more than five or six goslings in a brood. After the young are hatched, the parents may be allowed to leave the inclosure with them.
CHAPTER X
TURKEYS
The turkey is commonly considered the best of birds for the table, the most desirable for any festive occasion, and quite indispensable on Thanksgiving Day. It is the largest bird grown for its flesh. As usually found in the markets, geese and turkeys are of about the same weight, because most people, when buying a large bird for the table, want those that, when dressed, weigh about ten or twelve pounds; but the largest turkeys are considerably heavier than the largest geese, and the proportion of extra large birds is much greater among turkeys.
Description. A dressed turkey and a dressed fowl are quite strikingly alike in shape. The most noticeable difference is in the breast, which is usually deeper and fuller in a turkey. The living birds are distinctly unlike in appearance, the carriage of the body and the character and expression of the head of the turkey being very different from those of the fowl. The head and upper part of the neck are bare, with a few bristly hairs. The bare skin is a little loose on the head and very much looser on the neck, forming many small folds, some of which are sac-like. It varies in color from a livid bluish-gray to brilliant scarlet. An elongated, trunklike extension of the skin at the juncture of the beak with the head takes the place of the comb in the fowl. There is a single wattle under the throat, not pendent from the jaw, as in the fowl, but attached to the skin of the neck. The feathers on the lower part of the neck are short, and the plumage of the whole body is closer and harder than that of most fowls. The wings are large. The tail spreads vertically and is usually carried in a drooping position. This, with the shortness of the feathers of the neck, makes the back of the turkey convex. The usual gait of the bird is a very deliberate walk.
The male and female differ conspicuously in so many points that the sex of an adult bird is distinguished without difficulty. As a rule the males are much larger than the females of the same stock. In colored varieties the males are more strongly pigmented, and the shades of color in them are more pronounced. The head characters of the male are much more prominent in size and more brilliant in color. Both sexes have the power of inflating the loose appendages of the head and neck. In the male this is highly developed; in the female only perceptible. The male has a brushlike tuft of coarse hair growing from the upper part of the breast. This tuft, called the beard, is black in all varieties. The female is usually shy and has a low, plaintive call. The male challenges attention and often struts about with his tail elevated and spread in a circle like a fan, wings trailing on the ground, the feathers all over the body erected until he looks twice his natural size, and at frequent intervals vociferously uttering his peculiar "gobble-gobble-gobble." The male turkey has short spurs like those of the male fowl.
The name turkey was erroneously given in England when the birds were first known there and it was supposed that they came from Turkey. The adult male is called a turkey cock, also a tom-turkey (sometimes simply tom) and a gobbler. The adult female is called a turkey hen, or a hen turkey, the order of the terms being immaterial. Young turkeys before the sex can be distinguished are variously called young turkeys, turkey chicks, and poults, the latter being considered by poultrymen the proper technical name. After the sex can be distinguished, the terms cockerel and pullet are applied to turkeys in the same way as to fowls.
Origin. The turkey is a native of North America. Although not as widely distributed as before the country was settled, it is still found wild in many places. It was domesticated in Mexico and Central America long before the discovery of the New World. Domesticated stock from these places was taken to Spain and England early in the sixteenth century, and was soon spread all over Europe. The domestic stock of the colonists in the United States and Canada came from Europe with the other kinds of domestic poultry. It is probable that from early colonial times the domestic stock was occasionally crossed by wild stock, but we have no information about such crosses until after the Revolutionary War. From the earliest published statements in regard to the matter it would appear that such crosses had long been common, and that the benefits of vigorous wild blood were appreciated by the farmers of that time. The wild turkey is about as large as a medium-sized domestic turkey but, being very close-feathered, looks smaller. It is nearly black, and the bare head and neck are darker in color than in most domestic birds.
Fig. 154. Common turkeys on a New England farm
Common turkeys. The turkey is not so well adapted to domestication as the fowl, duck, and goose. Under the conditions to which they have usually been subjected domestic turkeys have lost much of the vigor of the wild stock. As far as is known, the birds taken to Europe after the discovery of America were black or nearly black. In Europe white sports appeared and were preserved, and the colors became mixed—black, white, gray of various shades, brown, and buff. That has been the character of most flocks in this country until quite recent times, and many such flocks are still found.
Improved varieties. The development of the domestic turkey is unique in that the most marked improvement in domestic stocks has been due to extensive introductions of the blood of the wild race. The reason for this is indicated in the statement in the preceding paragraph, in regard to the lack of adaptation of the turkey to the ordinary conditions of life in domestication. The turkey deteriorates where the other kinds of poultry mentioned would improve. So, while in Europe a few color varieties were made, and in some localities both there and in America local breeds of special merit arose, on the whole the domestic stocks were degenerate. The distinct color varieties were the Black, the White, and the Gray, but by no means all turkeys of these colors were well-bred birds. The color varieties were crudely made by the preference of breeders in a certain locality for a particular color. They were impure and often produced specimens of other colors because of the occasional use of breeding birds unlike the flock. In early times it was the almost universal opinion that crossbred stock had more vitality than pure-bred stock. Hence farmers, although preferring a certain type of animal, would often make an outcross to an entirely different type, and then by selection go back to the type of their preference. When this mode of breeding is adopted, undesirable colors may appear for many years after a bird of a foreign variety has been used in breeding.
The local European breeds that gained a wide reputation were the Black Norfolk, the Cambridgeshire Bronze, and the White Holland. Black and White turkeys were perhaps quite as popular and as well established in other places as in those mentioned. Black turkeys were the most common kind in Spain and in some parts of France. In some other parts of France, and in parts of Germany and Austria, White turkeys were the most numerous, but in general the turkeys of Europe and America were of various colors, with gray predominating.
In the United States a local breed of very good quality was developed in Rhode Island about the middle of the last century. It appears to have been known at first as the Point Judith Bronze Turkey, and also as the Narragansett Turkey, but the first name was soon dropped and has long been forgotten by all but those familiar with the early literature. The Narragansett Turkey was not bronze as the term is now applied to turkeys; it was a dark, brownish-gray, which is doubtless the reason why the name was changed after the distinctly bronze turkeys became well known. Although the Narragansett Turkey is described in the American Standard, and prizes are still offered for it at some shows, the type has almost disappeared.
Bronze turkeys. The accidental crossing of wild with tame turkeys produced, in the domestic flocks where such crosses occurred, many specimens of exceptional size and vigor, in which the blending of the colors of the wild turkey with the gray of the domestic birds gave rise to a very beautiful type of coloration. It was neither black nor brown nor gray, but contained all these shades and had an iridescent bronze sheen. As the crosses which produced these were only occasional, the wild blood being reduced in each generation removed from it, the bronze type was usually soon merged with and lost in the common type. As the wild birds became scarce, crosses were rare, and what improvement had been accidentally made was in danger of being lost, when the awakening of interest in all kinds of poultry stirred turkey growers to more systematic efforts for the improvement of domestic stock by crossing with the wild stock. Those who were able to do so captured wild birds and bred them in captivity, producing both pure wild and half-wild stock. They also secured the eggs of wild birds and hatched and reared the young with tame hens. With wild stock under control, they were able to use as much wild blood as they desired in their flocks, and soon fixed and improved the bronze type until they had a variety of turkeys that were extremely hardy, larger than the wild race or any domestic stock that had hitherto been produced, and also more attractive in color. The name "Bronze" was soon applied exclusively to this type of turkey in America. In England they are called American Bronze, to distinguish them from the Cambridge Bronze, which seems to be very nearly a duplicate of the Narragansett.
Fig. 155. White Holland Turkey cock. (Photograph by E. J. Hall)
The evolution of the Bronze Turkey in America is one of the most interesting things in poultry culture. The work was done on a very large scale. It was not just a few breeders that engaged in grading up domestic turkeys with wild blood, but a great many scattered all over the country. Many, remote from places where wild turkeys ranged, paid high prices for full-blooded wild males, and also for grades with a large proportion of wild blood. In this way the wild blood was very widely distributed. As the superiority of the bronze type became established, turkey growers everywhere bought Bronze males to head their flocks, and so in a remarkably short time Bronze Turkeys of a type much superior to the old domestic stock became the common turkeys in many districts.
Fig. 156. Flock of White Holland Turkeys
Interest in the American Bronze Turkey arose in England at a very early stage of this development. In fact, there is some reason to believe that the publicity given to several early shipments of small lots of wild turkeys to France and England did more than anything else to direct the attention of breeders in this country to the value of systematic breeding to fix the characters which wild blood introduced. The most celebrated of these shipments was one taken to France by Lafayette on his return from his last visit to the United States in 1825. About this time, or earlier, an English nobleman, who had some American wild turkeys, presented his sovereign with a very fine horse. The king, instead of expressing pleasure with the gift, intimated that he would prefer some of the wild turkeys, and was accordingly presented with a pair. The use of wild blood to give greater vigor to domestic stock continues, though it gives no better results now than the use of vigorous Bronze Turkeys many generations removed from wild ancestry.
Fig. 157. Bronze Turkey cock. (Photograph by E. J. Hall)
Influence of the Bronze Turkey on other varieties. Although White turkeys have long been very popular in some parts of Europe, in this country they were, until recently, considered too weak to be desirable for any but those who kept them as a hobby. By chance mixtures of Bronze and White turkeys, and in some instances by systematic breeding, white turkeys that were large and vigorous were produced. Some of these were large enough to be called mammoths, as the largest Bronze Turkeys were. A few breeders who had these big white turkeys advertised them as Mammoth White Turkeys produced by Mammoth Bronze Turkeys as sports and in no way related to the old, weakly white birds. But whatever may have been the case at the outset, in a few years the Mammoth Whites were so mixed with others that the distinction was lost, for the best buyers of superior white turkeys were those who liked the color and had inferior stock which they wished to improve. All white turkeys in America now go by the old name, "White Holland Turkeys."
Yellow or buff turkeys were often seen among the old common turkeys. They were usually small and very poor in color. The mixture of bronze turkeys with these birds occasionally produced larger birds of a darker, more reddish buff but very uneven in color, with the tail and wings nearly white. From such birds, by careful breeding, a dark red race with white wings and tail was made. This variety is called the Bourbon Red, from Bourbon County, Kentucky, where it originated.
Other varieties of the turkey. The only other variety worthy of mention here is the Slate Turkey. Birds of this color are often seen in mixed flocks. Some of very good size and color have been bred for exhibition, and the Slate Turkey in America is classed as a distinct variety.
Fig. 158. Bourbon Red Turkeys. (Photograph from owner, C. W. Jones, Holmdel, New Jersey)
Place of the turkey in domestication. In discussing the history of the turkey in domestication much has been said of the influence of conditions on the type and on the vitality of this bird. The case of the turkey is peculiar, because it seems as capable of being tamed as the fowl, the goose, or the duck, yet does not thrive under the conditions in which it would grow tame. It is peculiarly sensitive to the effects of soil which has been contaminated by the excrement of animals, and so instinctively avoids feeding places on which other animals are numerous. Thus it requires a large range and, if permitted to follow its inclination, spends most of its time at a distance from the homestead. The successful growing of turkeys depends upon the watchfulness of the caretaker and the absence of their natural enemies. This will appear more clearly when the methods of managing them are described in the next chapter. Turkey culture is not well adapted to the more intensive methods of farming which become necessary after the first fertility of the land has been exhausted. Hence the turkey has almost disappeared from many places where turkey growing was once an industry of considerable importance. The farms of the Central West and the mountain regions of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee have for many years produced most of the turkeys consumed in this country, but the changing conditions in these regions seem unfavorable to the increase of turkey culture. Attempts to grow turkeys on a large scale have been made on the Pacific coast. While these may succeed for a time, turkey culture in this country is likely to decline rapidly unless changes in economic conditions afford cheaper labor on farms, or unless the natural enemies of poultry are so reduced that flocks of turkeys may be kept in a half-wild state.
CHAPTER XI
MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS
The turkey is almost exclusively a farm product. It is possible to grow a few good turkeys in confinement, but this is rarely done except in experimental work or by persons who grow a few for amusement and for an opportunity to study some of their characteristics. A few adult turkeys may be kept on a small farm and remain about the homestead as other poultry does. The turkeys themselves may get along very well, but they are likely to abuse the fowls, and as they can easily fly over any ordinary fence, they cannot be controlled except by putting them in covered yards. Turkeys kept under such conditions cause so much trouble that, after the novelty of watching them has worn off, the owner soon disposes of them. It is where the farms are large and there is a great deal of woodland and pasture through which the turkeys may roam without strict regard to farm boundaries, and large grain and grass fields where they can forage after the crops are removed, that turkeys in large numbers are grown for market with good profit. On such farms, too, the farmer, if he is a good breeder, can produce the finest exhibition specimens.
Size of flocks. The number of turkeys kept on a farm for breeding usually depends upon the number of young it is desired to rear, but the difficulty of keeping more than one adult male with the flock tends to restrict the annual production to what can be reared from one male. Experience has taught that it is not advisable to have more than ten or twelve females with one male. Sometimes a much larger number is kept with one gobbler, and the eggs hatch well and produce thrifty poults; oftener an excess of females is responsible for poor results which the breeder attributes to other causes. The average hen turkey lays only eighteen or twenty eggs in the spring. Some hens lay even less. Once in a long time a turkey hen lays continuously for many months. A turkey grower who raises eight or ten turkeys for each hen in his breeding flock does very well. To do much better than this the hatches must be exceptionally good and the losses very light. Those who grow turkeys for profit expect them to pick the most of their living from the time they are a few weeks old until they are ready to fatten for market. A grower will, therefore, rarely undertake to hatch more young turkeys than he thinks can find food on the available range. It takes a very large farm to provide food for a hundred young turkeys and the old birds which produced them, after the young ones are well started. On many large farms where turkeys are grown regularly, not more than seventy or eighty are ever hatched, and if losses are heavy, not more than two or three dozen may be reared. A farmer who grows from seventy to a hundred turkeys is in the business on a relatively large scale. Flocks of larger size are sometimes seen in the fall, but not very often. The ordinary farm flock of breeding turkeys rarely has less than three or four or more than ten or twelve hens.
Shelters and yards. The wild turkey living in the woods, with only such shelter from the rigors of Northern winters as the trees afford, is perfectly hardy. Domestic turkeys are most thrifty when they roost high in the open air yet are not fully exposed to storms and cold winds. If left to themselves they usually select convenient trees near the farm buildings, or mount to the ridge of a shed or a barn, or perch on a high fence. A high perch to which they can mount by a succession of easy flights has such an attraction for them that it is a common practice to place strong perches between trees that are near together, or on tall, stout poles set for the purpose, where other trees or buildings form a windbreak. The turkeys, if at home, will not fail to go to such a roost as night approaches. One of the most important tasks of the person who has charge of a flock of turkeys is to see that the flock is at home before nightfall.
After they begin to roost, young turkeys need no shelter in the spring and summer. When chilly nights come in the fall, late-hatched turkeys may do better housed than in the open. Turkeys that are well grown and fully feathered do not need to be under cover in the winter except in protracted or very severe storms. Turkey growers who wish to have the birds partially under control, and want to be able to catch any one when they need it, often have the birds roost in a shed or other outbuilding available for the purpose. Such places should be very well ventilated, or the turkeys will become soft and take colds.
Fig. 159. House and yards for stock turkeys on a California ranch. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
Yards are made for turkeys only to enable the person in charge of them to keep them under control when necessary. The principal uses of the yards are to confine the hens at the laying season and to separate birds from the general flock when there is any occasion for this. A great deal of trouble is sometimes saved by having a small yard for such purposes. The height of fence required depends on the size and weight of the turkeys and also upon whether they are in the habit of flying. A turkey that is not accustomed to fly may not attempt to go over a fence four or five feet high that has no top upon which it could alight. The same bird, when confined in a strange place, might, without hesitation, fly to a roof twice as high, because, although not in the habit of flying, it has the power to fly such a distance and can see that the roof offers a suitable place for alighting. A turkey in the habit of flying over obstacles will often go over a fence six or seven feet high without touching. A turkey hen that is laying will not fly as freely as one that is not, because the weight and bulk of the eggs in her body encumber her movements. For this reason a five-foot fence is usually high enough for a yard for breeding stock, if they are to be confined to it only as much as is necessary in order to make sure that the hens will lay at home.
Feeding. The natural diet of the turkey, like that of all birds of the order of Scratchers, consists of a variety of vegetable and animal foods. Turkeys eat the same things that fowls eat, and apparently in about the same proportions, but their foraging habits are quite different. The disposition of the fowl is to dig for its food wherever it appears that anything is to be had by scratching. The turkey will scratch a little, but it prefers to wander over the land, picking up the food that is in sight. Fowls will forage from their house to the limits of their usual range and return many times in the course of a day. A flock of turkeys, if allowed to do so, leaves its roosting place in the morning and makes a wide circuit, often returning home in the afternoon from a direction nearly opposite to the direction they took in the morning. On their circuit, which is likely to follow the same course day after day, turkeys have their favorite feeding and resting places. Persons familiar with the route of a flock can tell where they are likely to be found at any hour of the day. If food becomes scarce on their circuit, the turkeys extend it, or go on an exploring expedition which takes them a long way from home. If night overtakes them at a distance from home, they look for a convenient roosting place and remain there.
Fig. 160. Turkey roost in shelter of barn on a Rhode Island farm
The feeding habits of the turkey make it especially valuable for destroying grasshoppers and other insects that damage field crops. To get an adequate idea of the great quantities of insects destroyed by a flock of turkeys, and of the waste food that they save and turn to profit by eating it, one should take careful note of the amount of food consumed when the turkeys are fed all that they can eat at one time (as when they are being fattened), and from this compute the amount that a flock must pick in order to live, as many flocks do, from spring until fall almost wholly upon what they get by foraging. Turkeys are much more systematic foragers than fowls, working more in concert. A flock advances in an irregular yet orderly formation, taking all the choice food in its way, but not often tempted to side excursions which would disperse the flock.
Many people who keep turkeys make a practice of feeding a little grain, usually corn, in the evening as an inducement to them to come home. When they require more food, they may be given whatever is fed to the fowls. Indeed, unless some arrangement is made by which the fowls and turkeys are fed separately, the turkeys may get the habit of being on hand when the fowls are fed, and drive them from the food. This, however, is most likely to happen when the range for the turkeys is so restricted that it does not afford good picking.
Breeding season and laying habits. Experienced growers of turkeys like to get their young turkeys hatched about the time when settled weather may be expected in the spring. Little turkeys are less rugged than little chickens, and are very sensitive to cold, damp weather. Although the hens may have been very domestic all winter, when they begin to lay they develop more of a roving disposition than is at all satisfactory to their keeper. They are very likely to want to hide their nests. When this is the case, and there is no yard in which they may be confined, they make a great deal of trouble. They often go a long way from home to find places for their nests, and make such wide circuits, and double on their tracks so often in going and returning, that the nests are very hard to find. There is nothing to do in such cases but to confine the turkey or to follow her day after day until the nest is found. If she is to be confined, it should be done as soon as she indicates that she does not intend to take one of the nests provided or to make one at home. When, in spite of efforts to prevent it, a turkey hen makes a nest at a distance and has laid some eggs in it before the nest is discovered, it is best to allow her to continue to lay there, but the eggs should be removed as soon as laid. The egg of a turkey is about twice as large as a hen's egg. The usual color is a light, slightly bluish, brown, with small spots of a darker shade.
Hatching and rearing. Turkey eggs are often incubated by fowls. A fowl will hatch the eggs just as well as a turkey hen, and may make as good a mother for a few turkeys grown on a small place. For young turkeys grown on the farm, turkey hens make the best mothers, because they take them to better foraging ground and remain with them all the season. It is a good plan, especially when there are more turkey eggs than the turkey hens can cover, to set some fowls on the surplus eggs at the same time that the turkey hens are set. Then, as there will rarely be a full hatch from all nests, the young turkeys hatched by the fowls will fill up the broods of the turkey mothers. A fowl will cover from seven to nine turkey eggs. As a rule it is better to give the smaller number. A turkey hen will cover from twelve to fifteen of her own eggs, or even a larger number, but the young turkeys will be stronger if the nest is not too full. The period of incubation is four weeks. Even when normally strong and healthy, little turkeys appear weak in comparison with lively young chickens and ducks or the more bulky goslings. They may be fed the same as young chickens.
Fig. 161. Sheltered turkey nest. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
It is the common practice to confine the mother to a coop from which the little turkeys can go to a small pen placed in front of it. The pen may be made of wide boards placed on edge, or of light frames covered with one-inch-mesh wire netting. The coop and pen should be moved before the grass becomes much trampled and soiled. The little turkeys can be kept in such an inclosure for only about a week or ten days. As they increase in size, and as their wings grow, they fly over low obstacles as easily and naturally as little chickens scratch or as little ducks swim. Having once flown out of the pen, they cannot be kept in it or in any inclosure that has not a high fence or a cover. When only two weeks old, little Bronze Turkeys have been seen flying to the top of a five-foot fence and, after a few efforts, reaching it with seeming ease. No matter how contented old turkeys that produced them may have been in confinement, young turkeys become restless as soon as their wings and legs are strong, and, unless prevented from doing so, will begin to roam long distances. They do not wait for the mother, whether fowl or turkey, to take the initiative and lead them. If she is not disposed to rove, they start and let her follow. A turkey hen quickly catches their spirit and goes with them and keeps them together; a fowl is likely to follow them reluctantly, allow them to scatter, and lose a part of the brood.
Fig. 162. Turkey brood coop. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
When the little turkeys have reached this stage, the best plan of managing them depends upon circumstances. If there is little danger of enemies disturbing them, they may be given a light feed in the morning and then allowed to forage where they please, the person in charge looking occasionally to see that they do not go too far and, if necessary, bringing them back or starting them off in another direction. In case of a sudden, hard shower the turkeys must be looked up, and if any have been caught out in the rain and have been chilled and wet, they should be warmed and dried at once. The usual way to do this is to wrap the bird in a piece of old flannel and place it in an oven at a temperature of about 100 degrees, or near a stove. If this is done promptly, a bird that seemed to be nearly dead from wet and cold may be running about as well as ever in an hour. A large part of the losses of little turkeys is due to lack of attention in matters of this kind, or to delaying it until the injury cannot be fully repaired.
Fig. 163. Turkey hen with brood. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
After the young turkeys are five or six weeks old, they do not need such close watching. They are now so well feathered that their plumage sheds rain, and if they are thrifty, a little wetting will not hurt them. It is at this age that the symptoms of the disease called blackhead begin to appear, if it is present, and the turkeys pine away and die one by one. Blackhead is a contagious liver disease which affects fowls as well as turkeys, but is most fatal to young turkeys, because it is a filth disease; as has been said, turkeys are especially sensitive to foul conditions, and the young of all kinds of poultry are more sensitive to such conditions than the adults. The germs of the disease pass into the soil with the excrement of affected birds and may remain there for several years. Young birds feeding on land containing these germs may take up some with their food. If the birds are vigorous and thrifty and the land is not badly infected, no harm may be done, but if the birds are weakly and the land is so badly infected that they are constantly taking up more germs, the disease soon develops in acute form.
Fig. 164. Driving turkeys to market in Tennessee. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
Many people suppose that if once they have serious trouble with this disease, it is useless for them to try to grow turkeys, but this is an error. The germs of the disease are destroyed by cultivating the land and exposing them to the sun and air. Three or four years of cultivation will rid a piece of land of disease germs, no matter how badly it is affected. The infection is not usually distributed in dangerous quantities all over a farm or all over the land on which the turkeys and fowls have ranged. It is principally on the land near the farm buildings. There would be very little danger from diseases of this kind on farms if those who feed the poultry would make it a practice to scatter food on clean grass or cultivated ground at a little distance from the buildings, instead of giving it (as too many do) on ground that is bare year after year and never cultivated.
On a large farm the turkeys should not require close attention after they are two months old. A little food may be given to them in the morning and again in the evening, to keep them familiar with the person in charge, and if they are inclined to stray too far, they should be rounded up soon after noon and started toward home. Having started in that direction, they may be left to come at their leisure. They should pick the most of their living until the time comes to begin to fatten them. Beginning about three weeks before they are to be killed, they should be fed two or three times a day all the whole corn they will eat.
CHAPTER XII
GUINEAS
Description. The guinea, or guinea fowl, is about the size of a small fowl. It is very much like the fowl in some respects but not at all like it in some others. Naturalists classify it in the pheasant family, but its present place in domestication is so different from that of the pheasant that a poultry keeper hardly ever associates them in his thought. In appearance the guinea is a unique bird. The shape of the body and shape of the head are both peculiar. The body is quite plump, the back nearly horizontal, and the tail short and much depressed. The neck and legs are rather short. The feathers of the neck are short, and the head is bare. The skin of the head and face is a bluish-white. The bird has a small, knoblike red comb and short, stiff, red wattles projecting from the cheeks. The plumage of the body is quite long, loose, and soft, and lies so smoothly that it appears much shorter and closer than it is.
The male and female are of nearly the same size, and so like in appearance that the sex cannot be distinguished with certainty by any external character. The comb and wattles of the male are sometimes conspicuously larger than those Of the female, but this difference is not regular. Although the voices of the male and female are different, the difference is not easily described, nor is it readily detected except by people who are familiar with the birds, and whose ears are trained to distinguish the different notes. Both sexes make a rapid, sharp, clattering sound, and also a shrill cry of two notes. The cry of the male is harsher and has a more aggressive tone; that of the female has a somewhat plaintive sound, which some people describe as like the words "come back, come back."
The name "guinea" comes from the country of Guinea in Africa, from which the birds were introduced into America and Western Europe. The male guinea fowl is called a guinea cock; the female, a guinea hen; the young, guinea chickens.
Origin. The guinea fowl is a native of Africa. It is said that there are about a dozen similar species on that continent. This species is abundant there in both the wild and the domesticated state, and also in a half-wild state. It was probably brought into partial domestication at a very early date, for it was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as to the early civilized nations of Northern Africa. It may have been distributed through Western Europe by the Romans. According to one account, some English monks had guineas in the thirteenth century. It is likely that they were rare in Europe at that time and soon disappeared, for the modern Europeans had never seen them until they were taken to Europe from the West Indies, where, it is said, they had been brought by slave ships from Africa. There is a tradition that the first guineas in America were brought direct from Africa with the first cargo of slaves from that continent. In the West Indies and in South America the guinea, after its introduction, ran wild. The natural color of the species is a bluish-gray with many small, round white spots on each feather. On the flight feathers of the wings these spots are so placed that they form irregular bars.
Fig. 165. White guinea fowls
Varieties. The only change that has taken place in the guinea in domestication is the production of color varieties. White sports from the original variety, which is called the Pearl Guinea, were developed as a distinct variety. Crosses of White and Pearl Guineas produced birds with white on the neck, the breast, and the under part of the body. These are called Pied Guineas, but are not regarded as a distinct variety. Birds with the original white markings but with the color very much lighter and sometimes of a decidedly reddish tinge have also been produced by crossing. These are not considered a distinct variety, but are sometimes exhibited as such under the name of "Lavender Guineas." Some of the older works on poultry describe the Self-Colored Guinea, a gray bird without white spots, and the Netted Guinea, in which the original colors are reversed. The author has never seen these varieties, nor has he found any mention of them in the works of later writers.
Place in domestication. The guinea is as eccentric in nature and habits as it is unique in appearance. It is an ill-tempered bird, very pugnacious, and persistently annoys any other birds with which it comes in contact. While inclined to be shy of man and to resent his control, it likes to establish itself between wild and domestic conditions, where it is independent yet enjoys the safety from its enemies that proximity to the habitations of man affords. The hens are very prolific layers. This characteristic is said to be as well developed in the wild as in the domestic stock. Although they lay so well, they are not usually considered desirable for egg production, because the eggs are small and it is hard to keep the birds under such control that the eggs are easily secured. The flesh and skin of the guinea are quite dark in color. The dressed carcass is not at all attractive in appearance, but the meat is very good. Many people prefer it to the flesh of the fowl.
The guinea is not really a domestic bird. It is possible to keep a few in confinement and to rear the young with other poultry, but the adult birds are so noisy and vicious that very few people want them near the house or with other poultry. They would not be tolerated as much as they are but for the traditional notion that their noisy clamor keeps hawks away. Many farmers keep a few guineas, supposing that they are of service in this way. Those who have tried to find out whether the noise of the guinea really has any effect on hawks say that the hawks are just as bad where there are guineas as where there are none.
The only way that guineas can be made profitable is by treating them as half-wild birds—letting them establish themselves in the woods where they can maintain themselves—and then shooting or trapping a part of the flock each season. The number of guineas now produced in this way is steadily increasing in many parts of the United States where the winters are not severe and where wild animals which prey upon game birds are kept in subjection.
Fig. 166. White guinea hen with brood
Management of domestic guineas. As has been stated, guineas are so hard to control that few persons try to keep them in close quarters or where they must have particular attention. When a few birds are kept on a farm, they are usually allowed to wander at will; the owner secures as many of their eggs as he can find before they spoil, and perhaps hatches a few of them under hens, for the guinea hens often lay a long time without going broody. As they are prone to hide their nests and are very clever in eluding observation, it not infrequently happens that, when a nest is found, it contains a great many eggs, a large part of which have been spoiled by long exposure to the weather.
The first care of the breeder of these birds is to see that he has suitable proportions of males and females. Guineas are disposed to mate in pairs. Some poultry keepers who have observed them closely say that while one or more extra females may associate with a pair, the eggs of the extra females do not usually hatch well. Occasionally it happens that a small flock are all males or all females, and the owner does not find it out until too late in the season to get a bird of the missing sex. When a supposed guinea hen does not lay in the breeding season, the owner often thinks that she lays but manages to completely baffle his search for the nest.
The period of incubation for guinea eggs is four weeks. The young birds may be managed the same as young turkeys while small, but do not need as close watching to keep them from wandering away. Those that are hatched and reared by fowls are tamer than those reared by guinea hens, but are not so hardy.
CHAPTER XIII
PEAFOWLS
The peacock, or male peafowl, when matured and in full plumage, is the most gorgeous of birds. Many smaller birds are more brilliant in color. Many birds of various sizes and types have beautiful or interesting characters as attractive as those which distinguish the peacock. But this bird surpasses them all in attractiveness, because in it are combined in the highest degree size, beauty of form, beauty of color, and the power of displaying its beauties to the greatest advantage.
Description. The adult peacock is so much more striking in appearance than the females and the young males, and old males are so often exhibited alone, that many persons suppose that the peafowl are distinctly unlike other domestic birds. The size, shape, and carriage of the peacock sometimes suggest to them a resemblance to the turkey gobbler, but the peacock's most striking characters seem so peculiar to it that the attention of the observer is usually fixed upon them, to the exclusion of direct comparisons with other creatures. When, however, one sees a flock containing several females, or males in which the characteristic plumage is not yet developed, the general resemblance between peafowl and turkeys is immediately noticed. The peafowl is smaller, slenderer, and more graceful than the turkey, and is a little more agile in motion. But if there were no old males present to identify the species, to which they belong, a person who was not familiar with peafowls, seeing a flock for the first time, would be almost certain to think that they were turkeys of a rare breed. Notwithstanding this striking general likeness, a close observer will soon note that in nearly every conspicuous character the differences between the two indicate that they belong to entirely different species. The voice of the peafowl is a harsh, piercing scream.
Fig. 167. Indian Peacock. (Photograph from the New York Zoölogical Society)
The development of the plumage in the male at full maturity is like that of the fowl and of some pheasants. In all of these species in which the tail of the male assumes a highly decorative form, it is not the tail proper that is so developed, but the tail coverts and other feathers of the back, which in the male are long and flowing. In the peacock these feathers are very remarkably developed, both in form and in color. The largest are sometimes a yard long. The stem, or shaft, is a marvelous combination of lightness and strength. For the greater part of the length of the shaft the barbs are so far apart that they do not form a web, but make a fringe on each side. Toward the tip of the feather the barbs are closer together, and at the extremity they form a broad web. The feathers of this structure growing next to the main tail feathers are the longest. The next are a little shorter, and thus the length diminishes until the shortest coverts are only a little longer than the ordinary feathers of the back. This feather formation is called the train. The train of the peacock is the most prominent peculiarity of the species, but there is also in both sexes another uncommon feather character—the curious little tuft, or crest (called the aigret), which grows on the head.
The surface color of the peacock is a marvelous blending of purples, greens, golds, and bronzes of various hues. On the head and neck purple tints predominate. The train is mostly green with large, eyelike spots, or spangles, at the tip of each feather. The plumage of the female is a soft brown on the body, darkest on the back and shading to nearly white on the abdomen. The brown often shows slight tints of purple and green. The neck and throat are a purple-green; much less intense than the coloring on the male. The young males are colored like the females until they molt in their second year. Then they become much darker, but it is not until the next molt, in their third year, that they grow the characteristic train and take on the brilliant coloration which is their greatest attraction.
The wild peafowls in different parts of Asia vary somewhat in color and are sometimes thought to be of different species, but they are evidently all varieties of the same species. Specimens of all are seen in domestication. One variety is almost black. Domestic life has had little if any effect upon the type of peafowls. A white variety has been produced, and from the mixture of this with the green variety, birds that are partly white are sometimes obtained.
The significance of the terms "fowl," "cock," "hen," and "chick," or "chicken," in combination with the "pea" in the name of this bird is, of course, perfectly plain. Those who seek further meaning in the first syllable are puzzled until they consult the dictionary and find that the three letters as they occur here are not the word "pea," but a contraction of pawa, which was an Anglo-Saxon corruption of pavo, the Latin name of the bird. While the original meaning of the name is not known, the word came into the Latin language from the Greek, into which it had previously come from the Persian. Hence, the history of the name indicates that the distribution of the peafowl was along much the same lines in Europe as the distribution of the fowl.
Origin. The peafowl is supposed to be a native of Java and Ceylon. It is found throughout Southern Asia and is said to be very numerous in India and Ceylon, both in the wild state and in a half-domestic state. It was known to the Jews in the time of Solomon, and to all the ancient civilized peoples of Western Asia, Europe, and Africa at a very early period. In the days of the Roman Empire a peacock served with the feathers on[12] was a favorite dish at the feasts of wealthy Romans, and this mode of serving the bird was continued in Western Europe for many centuries. At what time they were introduced into that part of the world is not known, but it is probable that they were distributed to the various countries soon after the Roman conquests. Nor is anything known of their first introduction into America. It is, however, quite reasonable to suppose that some were brought here at an early date by wealthy colonists.
[12] Of course the bird was not cooked with the feathers on, but was skinned, the feathers remaining in the skin, and after the flesh was cooked the skin with the feathers was placed over it before it appeared on the table. Skinning poultry instead of plucking the feathers seems to have been quite a common practice in old times. As recently as between 1880 and 1890 the author heard of people who preferred it as the easiest way of preparing chickens to be cooked immediately.
Place in domestication. In Europe and America the peafowl is now bred only for ornamental purposes. That seems to be its status even in the Asiatic countries, where it is most abundant, and its position has probably been much the same in all lands and in all ages. The use of fully developed peacocks for food at banquets was simply a display of barbarous extravagance. Although a young peafowl is very good eating, a male old enough to have acquired its full plumage would be hard, tough, and unpalatable. The peafowl is not prolific enough to be a profitable table bird, and is too desirable for its beauty to be used for any other purpose. In this country peafowls are not common. Very few are seen except in zoölogical collections and at the principal poultry shows. The scarcity of peafowl is not due wholly to the expense of procuring them or to the difficulty of rearing them. Indeed, neither of these constitutes a serious drawback to their popularity. The peafowl is its own worst enemy in domestication. It has a very savage disposition toward smaller birds, and in this way usually makes itself an intolerable nuisance to those who grow other poultry. Many owners of large farms, who do not keep turkeys, or who keep only a small flock, might maintain a small stock of peafowl with very little trouble. Although they are so vicious when brought in close contact with smaller poultry, they will flock and forage by themselves if they have room to do so.
Management. The methods of managing turkeys apply at nearly every point to the management of peafowl. The peafowl matures more slowly and does not breed so early. The females are not fit for breeding until two years old; the males not until three years old. They do not pair, but mate in small polygamous families—one male with from two to four females. The peahen usually lays from four to six eggs—rarely more than eight or ten. The period of incubation is four weeks. Young peachicks are very bright and active. They begin to fly when only three or four days old. If they are to be kept in an inclosure while very small, the sides must be high or the top must be covered with wire netting. Although so active, they are less independent than most young poultry, and follow the mother closely until she drives them from her at the approach of the next breeding season. Peahens are preferred as mothers, because their disposition is to keep their young with them much longer than a turkey or a fowl does. Next to the peahen a turkey hen makes the best mother for peachicks.
CHAPTER XIV
PHEASANTS
The guinea and the peafowl were described as closely related to the pheasants, and as of limited usefulness to man both because of their ugly dispositions and because of their roving habits. The species of pheasants that are best known are a little farther removed from domestication by their extreme shyness, and have often been excluded from lists of domestic birds; yet it is quite possible that some of them may become of much greater economic importance in America than either the guinea or the peafowl.
Description. The most common kinds of pheasants are about the size of small domestic fowls, but have rounder, plumper bodies. There are also other characteristic differences. The head of a pheasant, except a part of the face around the eye, is usually feathered. This bare skin, called the wattle, is red in most species, but in a few it is purplish. The feathers of the neck are short, and the tail is depressed. Some of the rarer kinds of pheasants are as large as medium-sized fowls.
Pheasants as a class are distinguished principally for their brilliant plumage. In most species the male alone has showy coloring, the females being very sober hued. In some species the male has a very long tail, corresponding to the train of the peacock; in some the tail is wide and heavy, as well as quite long; in others the males are feathered like the females.
The name "pheasant" comes from the name of the river Phasis in Colchis, at the eastern end of the Euxine Sea. The term "fowl" is not used in connection with "pheasant," but the words "cock," "hen," and "chicken" are used as in other cases that have been mentioned.
Origin. The pheasants are all natives of Asia, where nearly all known kinds are found in the wild state. They are well distributed over that continent, and are found in localities differing greatly in climate and in the character of the soil and of the vegetation. Some species live mostly at low altitudes; others are peculiar to high mountain regions. According to an old Greek legend the first pheasants known in Europe were brought to Greece by the Argonauts on their return from the expedition in search of the Golden Fleece. A more probable story is that which says that they were introduced in the time of Alexander the Great. Pheasants were reared in confinement for food by the Greeks and the Egyptians, and also later by the Romans in Italy. Both the rearing and the use of pheasants in those times seem to have been limited to the very wealthy. From Greece and Italy they were gradually distributed all over Europe.
Fig. 168. Ringneck Pheasant[13]
[13] Figs. [168]-[172] are from photographs of mounted specimens in the National Museum, made to illustrate "Pheasant Raising in the United States," Farmers' Bulletin No. 390 of the United States Department of Agriculture.
History in America. The history of pheasants in America is much more fully known than that of most kinds of poultry. The first importation of which there is a record was made by an Englishman named Bache, who had married a daughter of Benjamin Franklin. In England at that time pheasants were propagated, as they are to-day, in a half-wild state in game preserves, and Mr. Bache expected that those which he imported and released on his estate in New Jersey would soon become established there. In this he was disappointed. Others who subsequently tried the same plan met with no better success. For a long time the only pheasants known in this country were those grown in confinement by fanciers.
Fig. 169. Mongolian Pheasant
The first successful attempt to establish pheasants at liberty on this continent was made in Oregon with pheasants brought direct from China. The United States consul at Shanghai sent some Ringneck Pheasants to Oregon in 1880. As most of these died on the way, a second shipment was sent in the following year. In all about forty birds were liberated. The shooting of pheasants was prohibited by law in Oregon until 1892, when the stock had become so widely distributed and so well established that shooting them was allowed for a short season. So numerous were the pheasants at this time that on the first day of this open season about 50,000 were shot by the hunters. In many other states efforts have since been made, both by state game commissions and by private enterprise, to acclimatize pheasants and establish them as game birds. Some of these efforts have been quite successful.
Fig. 170. Amherst Pheasant
Species and varieties. The relationships of the various kinds of pheasants are not positively known. Some kinds that are undoubtedly varieties of the same species are commonly classed as different species. The best-known of these so-called species interbreed freely. The rare kinds have not been sufficiently tested, either with common kinds or with one another, to show whether they are species or merely varieties. The European pheasants, descended from the stocks which came in early times from Western Asia, are called by various names—Common Pheasant, Darknecked Pheasant, English Pheasant, and Hungarian Pheasant. Two kinds of pheasants, of the same type but having more distinctive color markings, have in recent times been brought from Eastern Asia. One of these is commonly called the Ringneck Pheasant, but the names "China Pheasant," "Mongolian Pheasant," and others are also applied to it. The second variety, also called Mongolian Pheasant, is said by some authorities to be the only one to which the name "Mongolian" properly applies. It is not quite like the Ringneck, but, like it, has a white ring around the neck. From Japan still another bird, called the Versicolor Pheasant, or Japanese Versicolor Pheasant, very similar in type, was brought to England. These three varieties from Eastern Asia have been mixed with the European pheasants to such an extent that there are now very few pheasants of the type common in Europe before their introduction, and good specimens of the oriental races are equally rare. The principal English variety at the present time is a Ringneck produced from the mixture. This is called the English Pheasant; in England it is also sometimes called the Common Pheasant. The birds that breed at liberty in the United States are mostly of the Ringneck type.
Fig. 171. Manchurian Pheasant
Although they are very beautiful birds, the pheasants thus far mentioned appear plain in comparison with the Silver and the Golden Pheasants (which are the most common of the highly ornamental varieties) and the Reeves and Amherst Pheasants. These are the kinds most often seen in aviaries and at poultry shows. There are many other rare and curious varieties which are to be seen only in the finest collections. Among these is a class called the Eared Pheasants, because of the little tufts of feathers which project backward at each side of the head, looking strikingly like the ears of a mammal. The pheasants of this class are mostly dull colored and quite docile in disposition.
Place in domestication. The future place of pheasants in domestication is not so plainly indicated by their history and present position as the places of the guinea and the turkey seem to be. Pheasants seem to be more desirable, easier to control, better suited to confinement, and also better adapted to wintering out of doors in cold climates, than are guineas. The beauty of the ornamental types makes them very desirable to those who keep birds for pleasure. Because they are so much smaller than peafowl, and also because they are able to live amicably with fowls, they may be kept where peafowl could not. It is therefore probable that, as people in America become more familiar with pheasants, and as they learn that the greatest pleasure and the surest profit in aviculture are to be found in growing a few birds under the most favorable conditions that can be made for them, the numbers of pheasant fanciers will greatly increase.
Fig. 172. Monaul, a Himalayan pheasant
In England pheasants are extensively grown in game preserves, for shooting and for sale as breeding stock to those who wish to stock new preserves. Where the birds are fed by a keeper, as they must be when they are very numerous, they become so tame that hunting them is not very exciting sport. Some that have been released in this country, and have lived in a natural state in places where shooting them was not allowed, have become quite as tame as the birds in the English preserves. Altogether the history of efforts to establish pheasants in a wild state with a measure of protection from hunters shows that it would often be practical for owners of woodland and waste land to establish and preserve colonies of wild or half-wild pheasants. Whether this will be done to any great extent depends upon the extermination of wild animals and upon the placing of proper restrictions upon the domestic animals (dogs and cats) which are destructive to land birds; it depends also, to some extent, upon concert of action among the landowners in a community, in securing for themselves the use of the pheasants grown on their lands.
The possibility of domesticating pheasants of the Manchurian type, and one or two other rare varieties that, when seen on exhibition, appear very docile, is also to be taken into account. The United States Department of Agriculture[14] has called attention to the fact that some of the little-known kinds of pheasants seem especially adapted to domestication. Even before that, many poultrymen, seeing these birds at exhibitions, had been impressed by their appearance, and had remarked that they looked like birds that would become thoroughly domestic. At the present time persons desiring to grow any of the more common varieties of pheasants for table use should first ascertain how the game laws of the state in which they live, and of any state into which they might want to send pheasants, would affect their undertaking. Sometimes the laws made to protect pheasants in a wild state have been passed without due regard for the interests of persons growing them in captivity. Errors of this kind are usually adjusted before long; meantime those who may innocently break a law find the situation very embarrassing.
[14] Pheasant Raising in the United States, Farmers' Bulletin No. 390.
Management of pheasants in confinement. The breeding of pheasants on a small scale may be carried on in any place where suitable runs can be made for them. The first essential is a somewhat secluded site where the birds will not be subject to frequent disturbances. It should be near enough to the owner's dwelling to enable him to keep watch of what goes on in its vicinity, yet not so near that the movements of the members of the household, as they go about their ordinary affairs, will disturb the pheasants. It should be where trees or bushes make a natural shade but not a dense shade; a place where the sun and shade are about equal on a clear day is best. A light sandy or gravelly soil is to be preferred, and a clay soil should be avoided. If the land has underbrush on it, this need not be cleared from the space occupied by the run, unless it is so thick that it shades the ground too much.
Fig. 173. Coops and yards for breeding pheasants. (Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)
The house should be of about the same size and construction as would be used for a few fowls. A roosting place should also be made in the yard, for as a rule the birds will prefer to roost outdoors. The house is to afford them proper shelter from severe storms and during prolonged damp weather. For either a pair or a pen of a male and several females the yard should contain about 600 square feet. The fences inclosing it should be at least 6 feet high, and the top should be covered with wire netting.
Fig. 174. Young China Pheasants at feeding time. (Photograph from Simpson's Pheasant Farm, Corvallis, Oregon)
The Silver, Soemmerring, and Swinhoe Pheasants mate in pairs; the other familiar kinds are polygamous, and from one to five or six females may be kept with one male.
Pheasants may be fed the same things as are fed to fowls, and in much the same manner, but there is one important difference which the pheasant breeder must carefully observe. Fowls will stand abuse in the matter of diet much better than pheasants will. In feeding the latter more attention must be given to providing regular supplies of green food, to having all food sound and good when fed, and to regulating the quantity given for a meal so that it will not lie about and become sour or soiled before it is eaten.
Fig. 175. Fowls and pheasants in same yard on a New England poultry farm
Most pheasant fanciers use large bantams or small common hens to hatch and rear the young pheasants. The period of incubation is from twenty-two to twenty-four days. Until they are weaned from the hens the little pheasants may be managed as young chickens are, but with the same attention to variety of food and to moderation in feeding that has been specified for the old birds. A small number with a good range on grass or in a garden will pick much of their food. Many of the older works on poultry which treated of the care of pheasants recommended for the young birds a great variety of foods not easily provided. Nowadays the most successful amateur fanciers feed either a mixture of the common small grains or some of the commercial mixtures which contain, in addition to these, a number of seeds and grains not much used by poultry keepers who buy their grains separately in bulk. Stale cracked corn, which is dangerous to all young poultry, is especially to be avoided in feeding young pheasants. After the young pheasants are weaned, they must be kept in covered runs, or their wings must be clipped to prevent them from flying.
A large pheasantry is operated on the same general lines as a plant where birds are grown in small numbers. The method is simply an extension of that just described. When only one kind of pheasant is kept, the inclosed yard is sometimes made very large, and a hundred or more birds are put together. This is not good practice with any kind of poultry, and is no doubt responsible for much of the trouble which those growing pheasants in large numbers have had. At aviaries where there are large collections of pheasants, including many rare and costly kinds, the yards are always made large enough to give the birds good sanitary conditions, and as a rule each family of adult birds, whether composed of two or more, has a yard to itself.
CHAPTER XV
SWANS
Naturalists divide swans into a number of different species. Whether this division is correct is not known. The habits of swans, and the circumstances under which they are usually kept, tend to prevent the mingling of different kinds. As far as the author has been able to learn, there is no evidence which shows conclusively the relations of any of the supposed different species. The differences between them are in some cases very slight. Some of the decisions of the naturalists who have classified slightly different kinds as distinct species are based upon examinations of very small numbers of specimens. Considering the apparent resemblances of the different kinds of swans in the light of what is known of species and varieties in fowls, ducks, geese, and pheasants, it seems probable that the true species of swans are fewer in number than the common classification shows, and it also seems quite possible that all swans are of the same species.
Description. The common swan, called the domestic swan, is about the size of the largest domestic geese, but appears larger because it has a longer neck and head and larger wings. The body is also somewhat longer than that of a goose of about the same weight, and the swan is a much more graceful bird than a large goose. It is sometimes called the Mute Swan, to distinguish it from the Whistling Swan, which is a very similar kind not bred in domestication. There are other slight differences between the Mute Swans and the Whistling Swans, but the difference in the voice, if it really is as great as is supposed, is the only one of much consequence in deciding their relations. The Mute Swan is not dumb. It sometimes makes a low, whistling sound. People are not agreed as to whether there is any real foundation for the familiar tradition that the Mute Swan remains silent until about to die, and then sings a "song." Some people acquainted with the habits of swans declare that the swan is more vocal when dying than at any other time in its life. Others say that the idea probably arose as a result of some one's hearing a dying swan moaning in pain, as sick animals and birds often do, and concluding that it was uttering a series of sounds characteristic of swans in a dying condition. However that may be, the Mute Swan is distinctly less noisy than the wild Whistling Swan.
Until 1697 all swans known to civilized people were white, and the swan was an emblem of purity of color. In that year a Dutch navigator visiting Australia found there a black swan. Afterwards a white swan with a black neck was discovered in South America. Had the subject of heredity been well understood before the discovery of these two swans that were not white, people familiar with the white swans would have known that there were colored swans in some unexplored country (or that they had existed in the known world in a former age), for white swans are not perfectly white at maturity, and when young they are gray. Neither is the black swan all black. It has white flight feathers, and its black color is a rusty black, that is, a black mixed with red.
Swans are very long-lived birds, but stories of swans living to seventy or eighty years of age are not to be credited. It cannot be affirmed that the birds may not live as long as that, but the evidence in the cases reported is defective. The reports of swans living for fifty years are quite credible. The male and female swan are not readily distinguished, for there are no external indications of sex, and the birds use their voices so rarely that, even if there is a difference in the notes of the male and female, it is not practical to use it to distinguish between them. The only way to identify the sex with certainty is by observing the birds at nesting time.
The name "swan" is Anglo-Saxon. Nothing is known of its derivation. The terms "cock" and "hen" are sometimes applied to swans as they are to many other kinds of birds. The swanherds in England call the male a cob and the female a pen. The young swan is called a cygnet, from the French word for "swan."
Fig. 176. Swan and nest
Origin and history in domestication. Tradition says that the domestic swan was brought to England from France by Richard the Lion-hearted. As the swan is a migratory bird, still sometimes seen in many parts of the Eastern Hemisphere north of the equator, it is possible that swans were known in England long before the reign of this king. However that may be, it is certain that, from about the time of the Norman Conquest, the swan has occupied a peculiar position in England. It was regarded as a royal bird, and the privilege of owning swans was granted only to those in high station. At first the number of those who were permitted to own swans was very small, but it was afterward extended until, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, more than nine hundred different swanmarks were registered by the royal swanherd, who had general oversight of all the swans in the kingdom. The swans were marked by branding or cutting the bill, this being necessary because they lived largely on the margins of uninclosed waters, just as in some of our Western states cattle live on unfenced lands. The right to own swans carried with it the right to keep them in such a place.
Place in domestication. Although it has been bred in captivity for centuries, the swan is not fully domesticated. It does not, like the duck and the goose, so increase in size and weight when kept under the control of man that it becomes incapable of flight, but, like the American Wild Goose in captivity, it is prevented from flying by removing the first joint of one wing, the operation being performed as soon as possible after the young birds are hatched. The swan lives more on the water than either the duck or the goose. It subsists largely upon coarse aquatic grasses and plants, and is said to eat all kinds of decaying matter found in the water.
In England in old times the swan was used as food by the wealthy, but its use for this purpose ceased long ago. It is now kept almost exclusively for ornament. Most of the swans in America are kept in public parks or on large private estates. Very few are reared here; the supply is kept up largely by importations from England. The swan is not popular, because the birds are costly and are not prolific. Still the breeding of swans for ornamental purposes or for sale to exhibitors might be carried on with profit upon many farms. Under suitable conditions, swans may, at the same time, perform valuable service and make a valuable product. By consuming the kinds of food which they prefer, they clean ponds and keep sluggish streams open. Being so large and strong, and requiring so much coarse food, they are a great deal more serviceable in this way than are ducks and geese.
Management. When swans were abundant in England, they were kept mostly upon certain rivers and inlets of the sea where natural food was abundant. The climate of England is so mild that they can there obtain food in such places at all seasons. The colder parts of America do not afford conditions favorable to swan culture. Where the winters are long and severe, and streams and ponds are frozen over for months, wintering swans would be troublesome and expensive, but where the waters are open throughout the year, a farmer who had a suitable place for them might breed swans with profit. A pair of swans would cost about the same as a good cow, and might make about the same net profit. But there would be this difference: the cow would require a great deal of care, the swans very little; the cow would eat salable food, the swans mostly waste food. By this comparison it is not meant to suggest that a farmer might profitably replace his cows with swans. The object is simply to show how the possible profit from small specialities compares with the usual profit from a regular feature of farming.
The methods of managing swans are much like the methods of managing wild geese in captivity. The principal difference is that the swans must have a larger body of water, and one in which vegetation is abundant. They are not as fond of land grasses as geese are, and like to float on the surface of the water, feeding on the vegetation at the bottom. Their long necks enable them to do this in water several feet deep. They need no shelter but a small hut, which they will use only in rare emergencies. After they have settled down in a spot, there should be no need of building fences to restrain them. As they are not able to fly, they will remain quite near their home unless food supplies there are very short. In that case extra food should be given them. Even when natural food is abundant, it is a good plan to feed swans a little of something else occasionally, to attach them to the person who has charge of them. As every one knows who has seen the swans in parks, where visitors amuse themselves by feeding them, swans are very fond of bread. They will eat grain also, although, when not accustomed to it, they may at first refuse it. Their food is usually given either by throwing it on the water or by placing it in troughs from which the birds can eat while floating upon the water.
Fig. 177. Feeding swans on the water
Fig. 178. View of an English swannery
The female builds near the water a nest of coarse stalks and small sticks. Sometimes this is reared to a height of several feet, and material added around the sides, little by little, during the whole period of incubation. Swans have been known to pile up nearly half a cord of material for their nest. From five to ten eggs are laid in the nest. The period of incubation is six weeks. As far as possible, interference with the birds should be avoided during the breeding season and while the young are small. When it is necessary to handle them in any way, the attendant should have at the start all the assistance he is likely to require. A blow from a swan's wing may injure a man very seriously. It is said that such a blow has been known to break a man's thigh.
The young are gray when hatched and do not become entirely white until two years old. Even then many of them are not absolutely white, but show very distinct traces of reddish-yellow, especially on the head and upper part of the neck. There is a story that a young swan of a deep buff color was hatched at Lewes in England.
If the swans with young must be fed, the usual practice is to throw the food upon the water. Stale bread, grain, and even meal are given in this way. It looks like a wasteful way of feeding, but the birds will get all the food.
Swanneries are unknown in America. In England a few of those established many centuries ago still remain. The largest and most celebrated of these is at Abbotsbury. Swans have been bred here continuously for about eight hundred years.
CHAPTER XVI
OSTRICHES
The ostrich is unlike other birds in many important characters. It is not a typical bird. While it has feathers and wings, its feathering is not normal, and the muscles of the wings are lacking. In the minds of most persons it is associated with the circus menagerie rather than with the poultry yard, but, as we shall see, this singular bird has a place in domestication and, as a useful land bird, belongs to the poultry group. There are two species of ostriches, but only one of these is of economic value.
Description. The ostrich is the largest of living birds. A full-grown male standing erect measures from six to seven feet in height. The largest specimens weigh about three hundred pounds. As, in the atmosphere which now surrounds the earth, a creature of such size and weight cannot fly at all, the wings of the ostrich have become atrophied, and the muscles of the wings, which form the plump, meaty breasts of flying birds, are entirely wanting. Not only have these muscles disappeared, but the breastbone, which in flying birds is very large in proportion to the rest of the skeleton, and has a deep, longitudinal keel in the middle, is comparatively small in the ostrich and has no keel at all. The ostrich, having no power of flight, is dependent for safety upon its speed in running; so its legs are long and strong, and the muscles which move them are very large. Indeed, there is very little meat on an ostrich except on the thighs. It can run much faster than a horse. Because its foot must be adapted to running at great speed, the ostrich has only two toes. Its neck is very long and slender, and its head is very small and flat. In such a head there is little room for brains. The ostrich is a very stupid creature, but it does not, as is commonly supposed, hide its head in the sand and imagine that, not being able to see its enemies, it cannot be seen by them. That is a myth apparently based upon the fact that, when in repose, an ostrich sometimes lies with its long neck stretched upon the ground.
Fig. 179. Side view of male ostrich. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
Since the wings of the ostrich are useless for flight, the flight feathers have lost the structure adapted to that purpose and have developed into beautiful plumes. The tail feathers have also undergone a similar change. These wing and tail feathers are the ostrich feathers of commerce. The neck and head of the ostrich are almost bare of feathers. The body is covered with feathers, but not as densely as in most birds. There are just enough feathers on the body of an ostrich to protect the skin from exposure when they lie flat. The areas on the skin where there are no feathers are much larger than on other birds. The thighs of the ostrich are bare. The skin is in some varieties of a bluish-gray; in other varieties the bare parts are red and the skin of the body is yellow.
The crop and the gizzard of the ostrich are not separated as in other birds, but are joined; the upper part of the stomach performs the functions of a crop and the lower part those of a gizzard.
The male ostrich is usually larger than the female. The adult males and females are plainly distinguished by the color of their plumage, the body feathers of the male being black, while those of the female are gray. The plumes of both sexes are white or white mixed with black. The black on an ostrich is often of a brownish shade, and this is most conspicuous when it appears on the plumes.
The bill of the male and the scales on the fronts of his shanks become a bright rose color in the breeding season. The male ostrich utters a guttural sound, called booming, which is said to resemble the roar of a lion as heard at a distance. The voice of the female is like that of the male, but very faint.
The difference in the plumage of the sexes, although it is not complete until after the second adult molt, is noticeable much earlier. The females do not begin to lay until three or four years old. The males are not fully matured until four or five years of age. Ostriches are very long-lived. Birds whose age could be verified have lived as long as forty-five years in captivity, and at that age were profitable as breeders and also as feather producers. It is believed by some of those most competent to judge such matters that under favorable circumstances an ostrich might live a hundred years or more. Very few of the birds kept in domestication die of old age. They are so stupid, and their long legs, though strong for running, are so easily broken, that an accident of some kind almost always ends the life of an ostrich long before it has passed its prime.
Fig. 180. Front view of male and female ostriches. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
The name "ostrich" has an interesting history. The Greeks called this singular bird struthiĹŤn'. This came into the Latin language as struthio. In low Latin, avis, the Latin word for "bird," was prefixed to what remained of the Greek name, giving avis struthio. "Ostrich" is a contraction of this low Latin compound. So we have in this name a combination of two words from different languages, having the same meaning. The terms "cock," "hen," and "chick" are used with the name of the species, to designate respectively the adult male, the adult female, and the young before the first plucking.
Origin and history in domestication. The domestic ostrich is the wild African ostrich in captivity. It is probable that the ostrich was familiar to the people of Northern Africa, and was known to those of the adjacent parts of Asia and Europe, in prehistoric times. In very early times ostriches may have been kept in captivity for their feathers, as they are now kept in the Sudan, but, until about 1860, when the farmers of South Africa began to take an interest in the subject, we have no knowledge of any efforts to breed ostriches in captivity and to improve the quality of the feathers by giving the birds more nutritious food than they usually get in the wild state. The first stock used in South Africa was some of the wild stock found in that part of the continent. In 1882 the first ostriches were brought to the United States.
Place in domestication. Commercially the ostrich is valuable only for its plume feathers. The extent of the development of ostrich culture depends upon the demand for ostrich feathers at prices that will warrant breeding ostriches to supply them. When the industry was first established in South Africa, ostrich feathers brought high prices and the business was very profitable; but so many farmers engaged in it, and the supply of feathers increased so rapidly that prices soon became much lower and have never since returned to the scale that prevailed at that time.
The flesh of the ostrich is edible, but it is so hard and tough that no one would grow ostriches for their flesh. The egg of an ostrich is about as large as two dozen hen eggs. Ostrich eggs are said to be very good, but they are too large for ordinary use, and the birds are so long in maturing that it would not pay to use them to produce eggs for commercial purposes.
Fig. 181. Ostrich eggs and newly hatched chicks. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
The breeding of ostriches for their feathers, however, may be regarded as a permanent industry, for there will always be a demand for ostrich plumes, but it cannot be developed as extensively as if the product were a staple article of food. The ostrich farms in America are mostly special farms devoted exclusively to ostrich breeding. Most of these farms are owned and operated by companies. Some of them are stock speculation projects. In South Africa the industry is more in the hands of the general farmers, each of those engaged in it growing a few birds. The people of South Africa have tried to secure a monopoly in ostrich feathers by prohibiting the exportation of ostriches and by purchasing the best stock to be obtained in North Africa. Ostrich farming is practical only in tropical and semitropical countries; the plumage of the birds is too scanty to protect them in the cold winters of temperate climes. In the United States nearly all the ostrich farms are in Southern California and Arizona, but there are some in Texas, Arkansas, and Florida.
Management. In the places where ostrich farming is carried on, the birds need no shelter. They must be kept in inclosures fenced as for cattle. As ostriches are bred for their plumage, and that of the male is most valuable, the breeder does not object to their following their natural inclination and mating in pairs, but many males are so injured in fighting that they must be killed. This leaves an excess of females, and so two or more females are sometimes mated with one male. The birds are mated for breeding when they are about three and one-half years old. The object of mating them before they are fully mature is to prevent them from selecting for themselves partners contrary to the ideas of the breeder. Each mating must have its own yard, unless the place where more than one family is kept is large enough to allow each family the exclusive use of a part of it. Under such circumstances each group will keep to its own range.
The natural food of the ostrich is grass and the leaves of shrubs and trees. In domestication it is usually pastured on alfalfa, or fed on alfalfa hay, according to the season. The alfalfa is often supplemented with grain (principally corn), and grit, bone, and shell are provided as for other birds.
Most ostrich growers prefer to hatch the eggs in incubators, because by removing the eggs from the nests they induce the hens to lay more, and because the young ostriches are much easier to manage when by themselves than when with the old birds. When a pair of ostriches hatch their own eggs, the hen sits during the day and the cock at night. The period of incubation is six weeks.
Fig. 182. Flock of ostriches on a California ostrich farm. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture)
Young ostriches are fed the same as old ones. They are kept in flocks of fifty or more until about a year old, when the sexes are separated. The plumes are cut for the first time when the birds are between six and seven months old. Although the process of removing these feathers is called plucking, they are not drawn out, but are cut close to the skin. The object is to get the feather immediately after it is grown, before it can be soiled or damaged in any way. At that time the quill is still full of blood. Drawing it out would be very painful to the bird, and might injure the wing so that the next feather that grew would be defective. The stumps of the feathers are allowed to remain until they are dead and dry, when they are drawn out easily. In South Africa the Kafirs draw the stumps out with their teeth. In about six or seven months after the stumps are removed, the new plumes are grown and the process of plucking is repeated.
CHAPTER XVII
PIGEONS
The pigeon is the only species of aërial bird kept in domestication to provide food for man. It is also the only useful domestic bird that is able to maintain itself and increase in numbers in populous districts without the care of man.
Description. The common pigeon is about the size of the smallest bantam fowls. It is a plump, hard-feathered bird, with a short neck, a round head free from ornamental appendages, a short beak, and short legs. The prevailing color is a dull, checkered blue, varying in shade from a very light blue to nearly black. The blue is sometimes replaced by red with similar variations in shade. There are also white pigeons, black pigeons, and many birds in which all the colors that have been named are irregularly mixed.
The male and female pigeons are not distinguished by any regular differences of size, form, color, or voice. The males are usually a little larger and coarser looking, and make themselves conspicuous by their vain posing and domineering ways, but none of these characteristics are reliable indications of sex. The natural voice of the pigeon is a soft, gurgling coo repeated over and over with monotonous effect. It is sometimes heavier and more prolonged in the male, but except in the Trumpeter and Laugher Pigeons, in which the voice has been peculiarly developed, the difference in the voices of the male and female is not marked. Even in the two varieties mentioned, many males have such poor voices that the voice is not an infallible indication of the sex. The most expert pigeon breeders are often in doubt about the sex of some pigeons until they pair.
The name "pigeon" is from the Latin pipio (to peep or chirp), and came into the English language from the French. The Anglo-Saxon name for the bird was probably dufa, from which we have the word "dove," which is still sometimes applied to pigeons. Dufa was derived from dufan (to plunge into). It seems probable that the name was given because of the pigeon's habit of dropping almost perpendicularly when descending from an elevated position. The male pigeon is called a cock, the female a hen. Young pigeons are called squabs, squeakers, or sometimes squealers. The word "squab," which means "fat," describes the characteristic appearance of the nestling pigeon; the other terms refer to the noise it makes as it persistently begs for food.
Fig. 183. Tame pigeons. (Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)
Origin. Domestic pigeons are all descended from the wild Blue Rock Pigeon of the Old World. Although many of the improved varieties have been greatly changed in form, they are all perfectly fertile when bred together. The Blue Rock Pigeon is found in the wild state in Europe, Asia, and Africa. "Fancy Pigeons," by James C. Lyell, the best authority on the subject, contains this statement: "The British Blue Rock inhabits the rocks and caves on our seacoasts, as well as precipitous inland rocks, and certainly the difference between this bird and a common blue flying tumbler is very little. Their color is identical, their size almost so.... In the west of Scotland, where fanciers keep and show common pigeons, the wild Blue Rock domesticated is the bird so called."
It is by no means certain that these wild pigeons are a true wild race. Considering the habits of the pigeon and its wide distribution in England centuries ago, it seems certain that many, if not all, of the pigeons now found wild in the British Isles are descended from birds once domesticated. Rock Pigeons of the same type, however, are found in many other parts of the Old World and, whether wild or feral, are plainly all from the same original stock. The American Wild Pigeon, also called the Passenger Pigeon, which was once found in enormous flocks in eastern North America, is often erroneously mentioned as the ancestor of domestic pigeons. The Rock Pigeon and the Passenger Pigeon are of different species and are very different in appearance and habits. The Rock Pigeon is what is called a shelf builder. It builds its nest on a ledge, or shelf, and will rarely even alight in a tree or a bush. The Passenger Pigeon is a wood pigeon, nesting and roosting in trees.
Fig. 184. Flock of Dragoon Pigeons[15]
Fig. 185. Flying Homer Pigeon[15]
Fig. 186. Silver Runt Pigeon[15]
[15] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
Distribution in ancient times. The pigeon was domesticated at a very early stage of civilization. Like the fowl, the duck, and the goose, it was well known to all civilized peoples of antiquity. To what extent the distribution of pigeons in domestication followed the early migrations of the human race is not known. It is probable that pigeons were domesticated before the Aryan migrations began, and also that the domestic stock was sometimes taken by Aryan colonists to their new homes; but it is equally probable that at various times in the history of the earth people coming to new lands domesticated some of the wild rock pigeons which they found there.
Fig. 187. Swiss Mondaine Pigeon[16]
Fig. 188. Splashed Homer[16]
Fig. 189. Blue-barred Homer[16]
[16] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
Improved varieties. Common pigeons are much alike the world over, and have changed little from the wild race, but in many different parts of the Old World the making of improved varieties began thousands of years ago, and in some places peculiar types were developed which were little known elsewhere until modern times. The varieties of the pigeon are so numerous that it is practically impossible to make a complete list of them. At the large shows in this country, classes are made for more than one hundred fifty named varieties, in about forty breeds. In many of these breeds there are eight or ten principal color varieties, and an indefinite number of less popular varieties, specimens of which compete in a miscellaneous competition in what is called the "any other variety class." There are probably nearly three hundred varieties of pigeons bred in America and England. On the continent of Europe the number is very much greater. The Triganica pigeon has one hundred fifty-two color varieties, and it is said that another variety in Germany, not known in England and America, has one hundred thirty-eight color varieties. Where varieties are so numerous, many of the color differences are necessarily slight, and only those who know them well can readily distinguish the different varieties at sight; others are bewildered when they attempt to do so. In this chapter only the most pronounced color varieties and the breeds of most interest to beginners will be described, but some of the most interesting of the others will be mentioned, to illustrate the range of the improved types developed by fanciers.
Fig. 190. White Hen Pigeons. (Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)
Fig. 191. Young Jacobin Pigeons. (Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts)
The Carrier Pigeon. The homing instinct—that is, the faculty of finding the way home after wandering or being taken away from it—is found in animals of all kinds. In some kinds of animals it is much more highly developed than in others, and some animals of each kind have more of it than is usual with their species. It is well known that migratory birds usually return to the same localities season after season, and that certain pairs often return to the same vicinity year after year and build their nests in the same places. When this instinct is highly developed in a wild bird, its habit of returning to the same nest is of great interest to those who observe it, but it has no particular value. In a domestic bird the homing instinct or habit is of service because the owner of a bird relies upon it to make the bird return always to the place which he has provided for it, instead of taking shelter elsewhere or remaining where nocturnal enemies will find it an easy prey. In the domestic land birds the instinct has no further use than this, but in pigeons which, while thoroughly domesticated, retain full power of flight, the development of the homing faculty makes it possible to use them as a means of communication when it is necessary to transmit short letters with great dispatch.
Fig. 192. Muffed Tumblers with "saddle" color pattern. (Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts)
It is known that pigeons were used as messengers in war about the beginning of the Christian Era. An Egyptian bas-relief of about 1350 b.c. shows pigeons being released from cages just as they are now released in flying matches. The homing instinct is so strong in the common pigeon that any one familiar with its habits may easily suppose that pigeons were used to carry messages almost as soon as men had devised means of communication by writing upon any material which the birds could carry in their flight. There is reason to believe that in very ancient times pigeons were bred and trained especially for work of this kind in Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Fig. 193. Feeding pigeons on Boston Common. (Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)
The pigeon which in England and America now goes by the name of "Carrier Pigeon" is a type developed as a messenger pigeon in Persia and from that country distributed to many parts of the world. As bred in Asia it was larger and stronger than the common pigeon, and had a cere, or convoluted membrane, around each eye and at the juncture of the head and the beak. It is thought that this type of Carrier may have been taken from Asia Minor to England at the time of the Crusades, but nothing definite is known of it in Great Britain until the seventeenth century. This old type of Carrier and several closely related varieties were used for messengers, and also in flying competitions, until the variety next described was developed. When the Carrier Pigeon was bred for carrying messages, no attention was paid to its color. Pigeon fanciers who were not interested in pigeon flying, but liked the Carrier for its other characters, early developed many distinct color varieties and also gave special attention to the form and carriage of the bird and to the development of the ceres around the eyes and on the beak. The Carrier Pigeon is now bred only as an exhibition bird.
The Antwerp Homer. Beginning sometime early in the last century, breeders of flying pigeons at Antwerp, in Belgium, developed a race which soon became celebrated for superior development of the homing faculty and for great speed and endurance. This race was at first called the Antwerp Carrier. When the invention of the telegraph made the services of pigeons as messengers on land unnecessary, pigeons that could fly long distances were still bred and trained for competitive flying matches. In these, as a rule, they carried no messages; the object was to see which bird would reach home first. So gradually the term "homer" was substituted for "carrier," and the pigeons now called Homers, or Homing Pigeons, are the Antwerp Homing Pigeons. Good birds of this type are larger and stronger than the common pigeon, and have a bolder, more confident bearing and a more attractive carriage. They show their good breeding very plainly. Many of the pigeons called Homers are crosses or grades of the Antwerp Homer, and are not much better in any way than ordinary pigeons.
Fig. 194. Flying Homer[17]
[17] Photograph from C. E. Twombley, Medford, Massachusetts.
The true Homer is also the most popular type of pigeon for the production of squabs for market. Its great prolificacy, strong constitution, quick growth, and large size make it a favorite with squab growers. As bred for flying or for market, Homers are of various colors, and the color varieties are not distinct except as occasionally a breeder makes a specialty of producing birds of some particular color. Many pigeon fanciers breed Homers solely for exhibition. The Exhibition Homer has many distinct color varieties—Blue, Silver, Mealy, Blue Checker, Black Checker, Black, Red Checker, White, Yellow.
Tumbler and Tippler Pigeons. The flying powers of pigeons have been developed for other purposes as well as for traveling long distances. In rising or descending in flight a pigeon sometimes turns a somersault in the air. This trait has been developed in certain races so that many birds will perform the feat very often. These races are called Tumblers. They are found all over Europe and Asia and in a few localities in America. The common Tumblers perform in the air, usually at some distance from the ground, the tumbling of individual birds being an occasional feature of the evolutions of a flock circling about in the vicinity of its home. From this common Tumbler more highly specialized types have been developed. The breeding of these types has become something of an art, and in some cases the sport of flying them has become a well-organized recreation.
Fig. 195. Squab-breeding Homers. (Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts)
By breeding together specimens which performed well when flying, Tumblers were finally produced in which the tumbling propensity was so exaggerated that they could not fly but, after a few somersaults, alighted on their feet. These birds were called Inside Tumblers, or Parlor Tumblers, to distinguish them from the common Tumblers, which required more room for their evolutions than any ordinary building afforded. Although they are incapable of flight, the Parlor Tumblers can rise a short distance before they fall. The Roller is a Tumbler which turns many somersaults so rapidly that each revolution of its body is made in a very small space. A high-flying Roller falls while rolling in the air. An Inside Roller turns over and over backward on the ground.
Fig. 196. Clean-legged Red Tumbler[18]
Fig. 197. Muffed, or Feather-legged, Tumblers[18]
[18] Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts.
Breeders of common Tumblers do not give them liberty, but release them from their loft only when they wish to see the birds perform, and, by feeding them immediately upon their return, coax and train them to return to the loft soon after being released. A good performer is soon exhausted by tumbling, and is quite willing to return to the loft in a short time. But not all birds of Tumbler stock are good and persistent performers, and often birds that do not perform prefer liberty for a longer period to the food that is waiting for them in the loft. Birds have sometimes been compelled to remain in the air for a long time. As a result of this treatment of poor Tumblers a type of Tumbler has been produced which will perform more or less when ascending or descending, but which, having risen to a high elevation, will remain for hours circling over its home and perhaps occasionally flying away and returning. Tumblers of this type can remain in the air for five or six hours. In flying them for sport the object is to see which flock will remain in the air longest. The tumbling habit was gradually bred out of the high-flying birds, and after a time many of them did not tumble at all. Such birds were then called Tipplers ("tipple" having in some English dialects the meaning of "tumble"). The modern Tippler Pigeon is a bird in which the tendency to rise to a great height and remain there for a long time has been developed to the utmost, as the tendency to return home from great distances has been developed in the Flying Homer. Performing Tumblers and Tipplers are usually bred for performance without regard to color, and the colors in a flock of the same breeding may be, and nearly always are, various. Exhibition stocks of Tumblers and Tipplers are bred in many distinct color varieties.
Fig. 198. English Owl Pigeon[19]
Fig. 199. English Red Trumpeter Pigeon[19]
Fig. 200. English Saddle Trumpeter Pigeon[19]
[19] Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts.
The Fantail Pigeon. The Fantail Pigeon originated in India. The fan-shaped tail, from which this variety takes its name, was developed by selection to increase the number of the large, straight main tail feathers. Normally a pigeon has from twelve to sixteen of these feathers; in the ordinary Fantail the number has been increased to twenty-four or twenty-six. Many of the specimens in which this character is highly developed have a much greater number of tail feathers. It is said that forty-two feathers have been counted in a tail. A tail in which there are so many feathers cannot be carried in the natural position; it spreads, forming a major segment of a circle, and at the same time it is elevated until, in specimens with very full tails, the highest tail feathers stand nearly perpendicular. To balance the large tail carried in this position the Fantail has to carry its head very far back. This makes the breast very prominent. The bird cannot fly well, and when walking about it appears to be strutting to make a display of its spectacular tail. Its appearance is in this respect deceptive, for it is a very modest bird and has difficulty in balancing itself in any other position. The Fantail is gentle and affectionate, and is the best of all pigeons for those who want birds for pets. It is bred in many color varieties. The White Fantail is the most popular, because it is the most showy and the easiest to produce with uniform color in a flock.
Fig. 201. White Runt Pigeon[20]
[20] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
Fig. 202. White Pouter Pigeon
Pouter Pigeons. All pigeons have in some measure the power of inflating the crop with air. In the Pouter Pigeons this power has been developed and its exercise encouraged to such an extent that in many specimens the inflated crop is as large as all the rest of the bird. Pouters were introduced into England from Holland several hundred years ago. They were at first called Croppers. The common Pouter is a large pigeon with long legs. It usually stands in a very erect position. There is a race of dwarf pigeons of this type, called Pigmy Pouters.
Fig. 203. Fowl-like, or Maltese Hen, Pigeons[21]
[21] Photograph from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
Other important types. One of the most attractive pigeons is the Jacobin, which has the feathers of the neck turned upward, forming a hood which sometimes almost conceals the head. The Turbit and Owl Pigeons are distinguished by a frill of feathers on the breast, and by the peculiar beak and face, which are very short. The Dragoon is a large, showy pigeon of the Carrier type. The Trumpeter is distinguished by a crest, which greatly obstructs its sight, as well as by the peculiar development of the voice, to which it owes its name. The Runt is a very large pigeon bred both for exhibition and for the table. Some squab growers prize it very highly; others say that the smaller and more prolific Homer is more profitable for squab breeding. The use of a term commonly applied to undersized, ill-developed creatures as the name of one of the largest pigeons is one of the curiosities of nomenclature. The explanation, however, is simple. In England in old times common pigeons were called runts. The pigeon now called the Runt was introduced into England from Spain, and was called by early writers on pigeons the Spanish Runt, meaning the common pigeon of Spain. With the disuse of the term "runt" to designate the common pigeon, the term "Spanish" was dropped from the designation of the improved breed, and it became simply the Runt. Besides the Runt just mentioned there is another large pigeon, once called the Leghorn Runt, which belongs to the class of Fowl-like, or Hen, Pigeons, so called because in shape they are strikingly like fowls. The most familiar representative of this class is the Maltese Hen Pigeon.
History in domestication. The history of the pigeon in domestication presents some very interesting features. Its use as a messenger has been mentioned. From very early times people of privileged classes took advantage of the habits of the pigeon to grow the birds for their own use at the expense of the community. The Assyrians and some other ancient peoples considered the pigeon sacred to certain of their deities. Sometimes all pigeons were so regarded; at other times and places only white pigeons were sacred, those of other colors being used by the common people.
Fig. 204. Nun Pigeons[22]
Fig. 205. German Frillback Pigeons[22]
[22] Photograph from E. R. B. Chapman, Stoneham, Massachusetts.
In medieval times in England, the lord of a manor, when leasing farms to tenants, reserved the right to let his pigeons forage over them. As pigeons live mostly upon grains and seeds, caring little for green vegetation and insects, the newly planted fields of the farmer were the favorite feeding places of his landlord's pigeons. The landlords, being able to keep pigeons without other expense than that of providing shelter for them, built large dovecots near the manor houses and kept their tables plentifully supplied with pigeons. At one time it was estimated that there were more than twenty thousand such dovecots in England. The destruction of crops by the occupants of these caused serious losses to the farmers and a great deal of trouble between them and their landlords. This form of protection for roving pigeons in agricultural districts was finally abandoned.
No doubt the selfishness of landlords was originally responsible for this method of protecting pigeons, but the government of the country at that time also had something to do with it. Pigeon manure is very rich in niter, which in those days the government had difficulty in procuring in such quantities as it needed for the manufacture of gunpowder; so it adopted the policy of regulating the construction of pigeon houses, prescribing the method of disposing of the droppings to conserve the niter in them and appointing official inspectors to see that its regulations were observed, and collectors to gather the pigeon manure. It was much easier to do this when large flocks were kept by landlords than when an equal number of the birds were kept in small flocks by the tenants.
Place in domestication. Although many farmers keep small flocks of pigeons, the pigeon in modern times is a city bird rather than a country bird. The strong flying types are all well adapted to an independent life in towns and cities, where, as has been stated, they often become a nuisance. This form of nuisance might be partly abated and perhaps prevented if city authorities would systematically and humanely exterminate the free flocks of common pigeons, and encourage citizens to breed improved varieties under proper control.
Pigeon culture does not afford as many or as good opportunities for profit as poultry culture does, but it is suited to conditions under which poultry do not thrive. A flock of pigeons may be permanently maintained by a city resident who has so little room for domestic birds that, if he kept poultry, he would have to renew his flock every year. A few pigeons may be kept by any one who can provide a nesting place for them where they will be safe from cats and rats. In this country the growing of squabs has been widely exploited in recent years as a profitable commercial industry. Near large cities where the demand for squabs is good, squab growing on a large scale is sometimes successful. Elsewhere the small flock that can be cared for in the owner's spare time is likely to be more profitable.
The breeding of fancy pigeons is also almost wholly a spare-time occupation. The demand for fancy pigeons is small in comparison with the demand for fancy poultry, and a pigeon fancier's trade rarely grows so large that he can give his attention to it exclusively. In Europe the breeding of pigeons for exhibition and sport is more popular than in America, but the interest is growing rapidly in this country.
CHAPTER XVIII
MANAGEMENT OF PIGEONS
Fig. 206. Small pigeon house and fly[23]
[23] The photographs for illustrations in this chapter, when not credited to others, are from Elmer E. Rice, Boston, Massachusetts.
Almost every child knows something of the lives of the common pigeons that are seen at large in both city and country. Some flocks have owners who take a slight interest in them and make rude provisions for their safety and comfort. Nearly all the country flocks, and many of the city flocks, are in this class. But there are in all large cities, and in some smaller places, many flocks of pigeons which no one claims to own. They build their nests in high cupolas, in the belfries of churches, on sheltered ledges under the cornices or other projections of high buildings, and in all sorts of places from which they cannot be easily dislodged. The streets and areas of a great city afford daily food sufficient for vast numbers of birds. The principal part of this is fresh oats scattered by thousands of horses as they take their noon meal from pails or nose bags, and oats that, passing through the horses undigested, are mixed with the dust and dirt of the street. Very large quantities of food also fall on the streets from torn bags or broken boxes as cereal products are carted from place to place and handled in transportation. Then there are the crumbs and remnants of food thrown from windows by innumerable people who carry their lunches when they go to their work; and besides these a great deal of waste food from the occupants of tenements, as well as from many hotel and restaurant kitchens. Much of this is thrown out at random, but often, when pigeons begin to frequent places where food supplies are regular, the people there take an interest in the birds and throw out more than they did before. From all these various sources an abundance of food is available for birds that forage on the city streets.
Fig. 207. House and fly for a small flock
The pigeons do their part in saving this waste food, but the people derive little benefit from the saving, because so many pigeons are not kept under control, where their produce may be taken and used when it is ready. Good management of pigeons consists in keeping them so that the owner gets all the benefits of ownership. Good management in the large sense requires that all pigeons shall be owned by some one who is responsible for them, and who keeps them under full control or under partial control, as the circumstances in each case require.
Size of flock. A flock of breeding pigeons may contain as many pairs as can nest in the place where they are kept. Most pigeon keepers prefer lofts about 12 or 14 feet square, because in larger spaces it is harder to catch the birds when they must be handled, and in many ways the very large flock makes extra trouble for the attendant. A place with a floor area of from 150 to 200 square feet will accommodate from fifty to sixty pairs of breeding pigeons. Except when undertaking squab breeding on a large scale, pigeon keepers usually begin with a small number and keep most of the increase until the full capacity of the loft is used.
Fig. 208. Small barn and shed arranged for pigeon keeping
Quarters for pigeons. A pair of pigeons may be kept in a coop, box, or cage about 3 feet square, and 2 or 3 feet high. A cage 4 or 5 feet high, or one as high as the room in which it is placed, is still better, because it will allow the birds a little room to use their wings. If such a cage has a few perches at various heights, the pigeons will not seem to miss their liberty. Such close confinement, however, is not recommended except for those who cannot provide larger quarters, or who merely wish to keep one or two pair a short time for observation. A house about 6 feet square makes a convenient size for a small breeding flock of pigeons. In a place of that size eight or ten pairs may be kept. Attached to it there should be a wire-inclosed fly, as pigeon keepers call the outdoor compartment for pigeons. The size of the fly can be adjusted to suit the conditions and the available space. The larger the fly the better the pigeons will like it, but even a very small place where they can be much in the open air and lie and sun themselves is better than constant confinement indoors, which makes them anemic and greatly reduces their vitality.
Where the space for pigeons is very limited and there is room for only one small loft and fly, breeding operations are closely restricted. Most pigeon fanciers want at least two lofts of this size—one for the breeding birds, the other for the young birds that no longer need the care of their parents. With such facilities the work in the breeding loft goes on better, and promising young birds can be kept until they are well matured and the breeder can tell whether it is advisable to keep some of these and dispose of a part of the old ones.
To provide for larger numbers of birds, either more lofts or larger lofts may be made. A breeder of fancy pigeons usually prefers many small compartments. A breeder of squabs for market makes each compartment as large as is convenient and builds as many as he has room for.
Fig. 209. Old poultry house arranged for pigeons. (Photograph from Dr. J. G. Robinson, Pembroke, Massachusetts)
Buildings for pigeons are constructed on the same plans as buildings for fowls. The furnishings of the pigeon loft are different from those of the poultry house, and of course the fly is always completely inclosed. Upper floors or lofts of buildings are used for pigeons to much better advantage than for poultry, but where there is room it is more satisfactory to have all quarters for pigeons on the ground floor.
As the young pigeons remain in the nest and are fed by the parents until they are almost full-grown, each pair of old pigeons must have their own nesting place. As has been stated, the domestic pigeon is a shelf builder. So in arranging for nests the pigeon keeper builds shelves 10 or 12 inches apart, and divides these into compartments about 12 inches wide, thus forming pigeonholes. Because a hen pigeon often lays again and begins to incubate before a pair of young are ready to leave the nest, it is usual to arrange the pigeonholes in pairs. This is sometimes done by omitting alternate dividing boards, making each pigeonhole twice the size required, so that a nest can be made in each corner. Some people prefer to have single pigeonholes and to arrange them in double sections by making each alternate perpendicular board project several inches beyond the front edge of the horizontal shelf. When this is done, a pair of pigeons in possession of one side of a double section will usually claim the entire section and prevent others from entering it even when they are themselves using only one side.
Fig. 210. City back-yard squab plant
For indoor perches for pigeons individual perches shaped like an inverted V are most used. These are attached to the wall, one above another, about 12 or 14 inches apart. The pigeons rest on the upper edge of the perch, and the sloping sides prevent their plumage from being soiled by birds roosting above them. In the outdoor flies running boards are placed along the sides to make exercising and resting places for the birds, for they usually prefer a shelf of this kind to the ground. Long perches are also placed in the fly when the running boards do not give room for all the pigeons in the flock. Out of doors the birds get along very well on long perches, but in the house each wants a separate perch. Feed hoppers like those used for fowls are used in pigeon houses. Drinking vessels for pigeons should be of the fountain type, exposing only a small surface of water, because if the vessel is open the birds will bathe in it. For the bath any circular vessel with a depth of 4 or 5 inches and a diameter of 18 inches or over may be used.
Fig. 211. Running boards in pigeon fly. (Photograph from Springer Brothers, Bridgeton, New Jersey)
Ventilation and cleanliness. The ventilation of a pigeon house is managed in the same way as that of a poultry house, by adjusting the openings in the front. Most kinds of pigeons are very rugged and, when fully feathered, can stand a great deal of cold. When a house is open in winter, some of the young, unfledged squabs may be chilled and die from exposure, but breeders agree that, on the whole, it is better to keep the windows or other openings for ventilation partly open at all times. While this causes some loss of the weaker squabs, it keeps the old birds in much better condition than when the house is tightly closed.
Fig. 212. Constant water supply for pigeons
To keep the loft looking clean and neat the droppings should be removed from the floor, and from all shelves that can be cleaned without disturbing breeding birds, at least once a week. Many pigeon keepers clean the houses oftener than that, but if the ventilation is good and the droppings are dry and firm, a house may go uncleaned for weeks or months without detriment to the birds. It is customary to keep the floor of the pigeon loft thinly covered with fine gravel, coarse sand, sawdust, or chaff. To prevent the wind from the pigeons' wings from blowing this from the middle to the sides of the floor, a small box is placed in the middle of the floor. Whenever it is possible, the bath pan is placed outdoors, because in taking a bath pigeons splash the water a great deal, and if they are given the bath indoors, they will make a nasty mess of the house floor unless it is perfectly clean. The bath need not be given oftener than once or twice a week. In bad weather it is better to let them go without a bath than to have them take one and get chilled before their feathers dry.
Handling pigeons. When a few pigeons in a small loft get a great deal of attention, they usually become very tame and allow themselves to be caught at any time. For catching pigeons that are shy, pigeon keepers use a net, called a landing net, such as is used by fishermen. A pigeon is held securely in the hand by grasping it so that the breast of the bird lies in the palm and one wing is held against the side by the thumb and the other by the fingers. A pigeon may also be carried by the tips of the wings by bringing them together over the back and letting the bird hang by them.
Fig. 213. Small pigeon house and fly
Mating pigeons. The beginner's first serious difficulty in breeding pigeons is to get the birds in his loft all mated and each pair attending to the work of hatching and rearing its young. As has been said, the sexes cannot always be identified by appearance. Most of the pigeons sold for breeding are young birds that have not yet mated. Some breeders and dealers are very expert in selecting males and females, but all make some mistakes, and the average person makes a great many of them. There are two ways of selling pigeons. The most common way is to sell the desired number of birds, the seller selecting, according to his best judgment, equal numbers of males and females, with the understanding that if, when the birds mate, there is an excess of one sex, he will make a suitable exchange. The other way is to sell the number of pairs desired, guaranteeing them as mated pairs—which means that the pairs are all known to be properly mated. The advantage of buying guaranteed mated pairs is that the question of mating requires no further attention at the outset, but the prices for them are so much higher than for those not known to be mated, that most beginners buy on the other plan.
Fig. 214. Large squab plant. (Photograph from Dr. J. G. Robinson, Pembroke, Massachusetts)
Where the flock is small and the birds are to be allowed to select their own mates, all that is necessary is to watch them closely until all are mated or it is evident that there is a surplus of one sex. Surplus males will quarrel persistently with the other males and endeavor to coax their mates away from them. The unmated males must be provided with mates or removed from the loft. Unmated females are not so readily noticed except when there are only a few birds in the loft, but by close watching they will soon be found. When a start is to be made with quite a large number of unmated birds, the best plan is to put the flock first in a different apartment from that in which they are to be kept permanently, and, as each pair mate and begin to build their nest, remove them to their permanent quarters.
Fig. 215. Neat pigeon house and fly
When it is desired to mate a particular male and female, the best way is to place them one in each side of a small coop with a wire partition across the middle. This coop should be put where they cannot see other pigeons. Sometimes one of the birds shows a decided antipathy to the other. In such a case it is, as a rule, useless to continue efforts to induce them to pair. In most cases, however, the birds will soon show mutual affection. When this stage is reached, they may be taken to the loft and released. Short coarse straw or fine twigs should be placed where pigeons that are building nests can take what they want. No nest box or pan is really needed, but many pigeon keepers use a nest bowl, called a nappy, of earthenware or wood fiber.
Feeding. The food of pigeons consists almost wholly of grains and seeds. The principal grains used in America are wheat and corn (usually cracked corn). Field peas are also used quite extensively. While pigeons will eat the same kinds of ground-grain products as are fed to poultry, pigeon keepers rarely use such foods. They prefer to give a variety of hard grains and seeds. Those who keep large stocks of pigeons often buy separately the feeds which they use, and mix the grains to suit themselves, or feed them in such alternation as seems desirable. People who keep only a few pairs of pigeons usually find it more satisfactory to buy the feed mixtures sold by dealers in pigeons' supplies. As a rule, old grain and seed that are very dry and hard are best for pigeons, and especially for exhibition and breeding stock.
Fig. 216. An attractive squab plant
The most common practice is to give the feed in hoppers, keeping a supply always before the birds. This is done principally because it is the most convenient way, particularly for those who are away from home a great deal. For them hopper feeding is really necessary, but pigeon fanciers seem to agree that when the birds can be fed by throwing on the floor of the loft or the fly, two or three times a day, just about the quantity of food that they need for a meal, they do better and the cost of food is less than by the hopper method. Unlike poultry, pigeons require considerable quantities of salt. The common practice is to keep it before them in the form of lumps of rock salt, one large lump being enough for the birds in a loft of ordinary size. Oyster shell should also be supplied.
Fig. 217. Homer squabs four weeks old
Fig. 218. Carneaux squabs four weeks old
How pigeons rear their young. After a pair of pigeons have completed their nest, the male seems to come at once to the conclusion that home duties demand his mate's constant attention. At the nest he struts about, cooing and coaxing, entering the nest himself, then leaving it and plainly showing his wish that she should take the nest. If she goes away from the nest, he follows her with his head high and his neck inflated. His cooing turns to scolding. He pecks at her and will not give her a moment's peace until she returns to the nest. The hen lays one egg and, after laying it, spends most of her time standing on the nest until the second or third day after, when she lays another egg and immediately begins to sit. She seems to know that if she sat on the first egg before laying the other, one squab would hatch two or three days earlier than the other, and the second squab, being smaller and weaker, would have a hard time. The work of incubation is done mostly by the hen, the cock taking only a minor part. For about an hour in the middle of the morning and again in the middle of the afternoon he relieves her on the nest, giving her a chance to eat, drink, and take some exercise. Counting from the time the last egg was laid, the period of incubation is sixteen or seventeen days.
Young squabs, like all other young birds that are naked when hatched, are ugly little things. They have apparently insatiable appetites, and their mouths seem to be always open. They are fed by the parents with pigeon milk, which is simply the usual food of the old birds softened in the crop. The pigeon has the power of disgorging the contents of the crop at will, and feeds its young by forcing food from its crop into their mouths. When they are well fed, the squabs grow very fast. Young Homers four weeks old often weigh from three quarters of a pound to a pound, or even more, and are ready for market. Many of the fancy varieties of pigeons are hard to rear, because the abnormal structure of the beak or the interference of peculiar feather characters prevent the old ones from feeding their young properly. All the breeds described in detail in the preceding chapter are known as good feeders.
Fig. 219. Dressed squabs. (Photograph from Dr. J. G. Robinson, Pembroke, Massachusetts)
Pigeons will breed nearly the year round, stopping only while molting, but in cold climates many young birds die in the nests in winter. Those who are breeding for market take this as one of the risks of their business. If only half of the squabs are reared in winter, the profits may be as great as when the actual results are much better, because in winter the prices are much higher than at the seasons when squabs are most easily produced. Fanciers do not usually allow their pigeons to breed during the coldest winter months, but take the eggs from the nests or keep the sexes separate until spring approaches. The object of the fancier is to produce specimens having the finest possible development of form and color. He cannot do this successfully under conditions that cause heavy losses. The birds may grow under such conditions but will not have the superior quality that he desires, and so he finds it more profitable to concentrate all his attention upon the birds that he can produce when the weather is most favorable.
CHAPTER XIX
CANARIES
The canary is the only common cage bird. There are about fifty kinds of birds that make desirable pets, but very few of them will breed in small cages, and many will not breed in confinement even when kept in large aviaries. In the United States the number of kinds of cage birds is restricted by state laws which prohibit keeping native song birds in captivity. Such laws are necessary to preserve the birds. Before these laws were passed, great numbers of song birds were trapped every year to send to Europe, where the keeping of cage birds as pets is more popular than in America. Song birds from other parts of the world may be kept in this country, but most of them are so scarce and expensive that few people would buy them even if the canary were not a more satisfactory pet.
Description. The common domestic canary is a small bird, about five inches in length, very lively and sprightly in manner, and in color yellow or a greenish gray and yellow. The male and female are so much alike that the sex cannot be positively determined by the appearance. Although it often happens that the male is more slender in form and brighter in color, the voice is a better index of sex and, in mature birds of good singing stock, is very reliable. The male is the singer. The female also has a singing voice, but it is so inferior in quality to that of the male that few people care for it.
Origin. The domestic canary belongs to the finch family and is found wild in the Canary Islands (from which it takes its name) and in a number of other islands in that part of the world. The color of the wild birds is described, by some who have seen them, as greenish-gray, changing to a greenish-yellow on the breast and under parts. Other observers describe the wild birds of some localities as brownish.
Fig. 220. Tricolor Canary[24]
[24] The illustrations in this chapter are from "Our Domestic Animals," by Charles W. Burkett.
The canary was introduced into Europe about four hundred years ago. As the story goes, a ship with a cargo from the Canary Islands, carrying several thousand canaries, which the traders thought might be sold in Europe, was wrecked off the coast of Italy early in the sixteenth century. Before the sailors left the ship, they opened the cages containing the canaries. The birds escaped to the Island of Elba and there became established in the wild state. From this colony of canaries birds were captured and distributed to all parts of Europe and America, their superior song powers and adaptability to domestication making them popular wherever they became known.
Fig. 221. Norwich Canary with hood
The wild bird known in America as the wild canary is the American Goldfinch. It belongs to the same family as the canary but is of a different species. It is of no value as a singer.
Fig. 222. Yorkshire Canary
Improvement in domestication. Nearly all the varieties of the canary were developed before the eighteenth century. The German canary fanciers turned their attention to developing the song of the bird, the Belgian and British fanciers to making and perfecting shape and color varieties. In Germany the celebrated Harz Mountain Canaries were produced. These are simply common canaries carefully bred and trained for singing. But their excellence as singers is not due to breeding and training alone; the climate of the Harz Mountain region seems to be peculiarly suited to the development of canaries with beautiful voices. The finest Harz Mountain Canaries are produced at St. Andreasberg, a health resort noted for its pure and bracing air. The St. Andreasberg Roller is a canary trained to sing with a peculiar rolling note.
Among fancy types of canaries the most interesting are the Norwich Canary, which is larger than the singing canaries and has reddish-yellow plumage; the Manchester Coppy, a yellow canary almost as large as a small pigeon; the Lizard Canaries (Silver and Golden), which have spangled markings on the back; the London Fancy Canary, which has an orange body with black wings and tail; and the Belgian Canary, a malformed type in which the head appears to grow out of the breast instead of being carried above the shoulders.
Fig. 223. Belgian Canary
Place in domestication. Most people who have canaries keep them for pets, and have only a few. In perhaps the greater number of cases a single bird—a singer—satisfies the canary lover. A few of those who keep canaries as pets also breed them for sale. Occasionally a canary fancier devotes a room in his house entirely to his birds and, when breeding on such a scale, has a great many to sell. The commercial side of canary breeding, however, is usually subordinate, except in the Harz Mountain district, where the breeding and training of singing canaries is a very important cottage industry. Canaries from this district are sold all over the civilized world.
Fig. 224. English Flatheaded Canary