Our Domestic Birds: Elementary Lessons in Aviculture

=Definition of a bird.= A bird is a feathered animal. The covering of feathers is the only character common to all birds and not possessed by any other creature. The other chara...

=Feathers.= The feathers of a bird are the most highly developed form of protective covering in animals, serving other important functions in addition to the primary one. Compar...

The three general classes of domestic birds include few species but many varieties, and, outside of the distinct varieties, an indefinite number of individual types. Where varie...

The most useful of all birds is the common fowl, seen on almost every farm and in the back yards of many city and village homes. The fowl takes to the conditions of domestic lif...

The methods of managing fowls vary according to the conditions under which they are kept and the time that the keeper can give them. Fowls ought to have an outdoor run, and it i...

Ducks rank next to fowls in economic importance. If there were no fowls, domestic ducks would probably be as numerous as fowls are now, for it is much easier to produce eggs and...

Although ducks delight in the water and, when they have an opportunity to do so, spend a considerable part of the time in it, they are often kept very successfully where they ha...

People who are not familiar with animals often get wrong ideas of the characters of certain creatures from the popular metaphorical use of their names. Perhaps those who first a...

Geese will bear confinement well if given proper attention, but they require such large quantities of succulent green food that it does not pay to grow them where they cannot se...

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 bi...

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...

=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 c...

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 ty...

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 r...

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 usual...

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 w...

The pigeon is the only species of aerial bird kept in domestication to provide food for man. It is also the only useful domestic bird that is able to maintain itself and increas...

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...

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 i...

=Producers, consumers, and middlemen.= The preceding chapters have treated of the characters and the uses of domestic birds, and of the methods of producing them. In this chapte...

=Conditions in the fancy trade.= The trade in fancy poultry and pigeons and in cage birds is on a very different basis from the trade in market products. With the arrangements f...

The value of a knowledge of domestic birds is not limited to the use which may be made of it in keeping them for profit or for pleasure. Any occupation in which a great many peo...