Philippine Islands, the semi-barbarous inhabitants have distinct
native names for no less than nine sub-breeds of the Game Fowl.[370]
Azara,[371] who wrote towards the close of the last century, states that in
the interior parts of South America, where I should not have expected that
the least care would have been taken of poultry, a black-skinned and
black-boned breed is kept, from being considered fertile and its flesh good
for sick persons. Now every one who has kept poultry knows how impossible
it is to keep several breeds distinct unless the utmost care be taken in
separating the sexes. Will it then be pretended that those persons who in
ancient times and in semi-civilized countries took pains to keep the breeds
distinct, and who therefore valued them, would not occasionally have
destroyed inferior birds and occasionally have preserved their best birds?
This is all that is required. It is not pretended that any one in ancient
times intended to form a new breed, or to modify an old breed according to
some ideal standard of excellence. He who cared for poultry would merely
wish to obtain, and afterwards to rear, the best birds which he could; but
this occasional preservation of the best birds would in the course of time
modify the breed, as surely, though by no means as rapidly, as does
methodical selection at the present day. If one person out of a hundred or
out of a thousand attended to the breeding of his birds, this would be
sufficient; for the birds thus tended would soon become superior to others,
and would form a new strain; and this strain would, as explained in the
last chapter, slowly have its characteristic differences augmented, and at
last be converted into a new sub-breed or breed. But breeds would often be
for a time neglected and would deteriorate; they would, however, partially
retain their character, and afterwards might again come into fashion and be
raised to a standard of perfection {233} higher than their former standard;
as has actually occurred quite recently with Polish fowls. If, however, a
breed were utterly neglected, it would become extinct, as has recently
happened with one of the Polish sub-breeds. Whenever in the course of past
centuries a bird appeared with some slight abnormal structure, such as with
a lark-like crest on its head, it would probably often have been preserved
from that love of novelty which leads some persons in England to keep
rump-less fowls, and others in India to keep