thing
like the imperfect companionship with man which has been attained by
the guinea-fowls and turkeys. All we know of the variations in plumage
of birds indicates that the breeder's art may bring about great
changes in the highly decorative feathers for which this bird is to be
reared. It is also probable that with the better food which domestic
conditions imply, this wanderer of the desert may be brought to attain
a very much greater size than it wins in the hard life of its native
land. If the form should prove as plastic as that of our ordinary
barnyard species, we may indeed succeed in developing a variety
approaching in dimensions the gigantic moa of New Zealand, or the
aepyornis of Madagascar, those magnificent creatures of the past which
passed away just before their native lands were known to our race. The
variations in size of the wild ostrich appear to indicate that this
interesting result may be attainable.

Next after the cocks and hens the most important birds of economic
value have come from the water fowl. In this field there are great
opportunities for domestication, only a few of which have been
adequately used. The aquatic birds, save for the fact that they are in
all cases inspired with a more or less strong migratory humor, lend
themselves to the shaping hand of man more readily than most other
forms. These creatures have the habit of association in a much more
perfect way than our ground birds. They normally dwelt in rather close
order and in relations which are necessarily very sympathetic. Whoever
has watched the flight of wild geese must have remarked the beautiful
way in which they arrange at once for close companionship and for
safety in the violent movements which impel their heavy bodies at high
speed through the air. In the order of their flight the alignment is
more perfect than in the march of trained soldiers. Each bird keeps as
near to his neighbor as possible; but manages always to preserve the
interval which will insure against a collision of the strong and
swift-moving wings, an accident which might well disable them for
flight. I have repeatedly undertaken to confound their motion by
firing a rifle bullet at the head of the moving wedge. Although the
sound of the projectile, if well directed, will disturb their
processional order, it never brings confusion. The startled birds sink
down or rise above the plane of the air in which their comrades are
moving, but they never strike aga