XVII. Pigeons 239 Description—Origin—Distribution in ancient times—Improved varieties—The Carrier Pigeon—The Antwerp Homer—Tumbler and Tippler Pigeons—The Fantail Pigeon—Pouter Pigeons—Other important types—History in domestication—Place in domestication XVIII. Management of Pigeons 255 Size of flock—Quarters for pigeons—Ventilation and cleanliness—Handling pigeons—Mating pigeons—Feeding—How pigeons rear their young XIX. Canaries 269 Description—Origin—Improvement in domestication—Place in domestication—Management of canaries: Cages—Position of the Cage—Feeding—Care—Breeding XX. Distribution of Market Products 275 Producers, consumers, and middlemen—How the middleman enters local trade—Additional middlemen—How the demand for poultry products stimulates production—Losses in distribution—Cold storage of poultry products—Methods of selling at retail—Volume of products XXI. Exhibitions and the Fancy Trade 291 Conditions in the fancy trade—Exhibitions—Rudiments of judging—Disqualifications—Methods of judging—Exhibition quality and value—Why good breeders have much low-priced stock—Fancy and utility types in the same variety XXII. Occupations related to Aviculture 304 Judging fancy poultry and pigeons—Journalism—Art—Invention—Education and investigation—Manufacturing and commerce—Legislation and litigation INDEX 311

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CHAPTER I
BIRDS AND THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN

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 characters—the bill, the wings, egg-laying, etc.—by which we usually distinguish birds from animals of other kinds are not exclusive bird characters. Turtles have beaks, and there is one species of mammal (the ornithorhynchus) which has a bill like that of a duck. Many insects and one species of mammal (the bat) fly. Insects, fishes, and reptiles lay eggs, and there are several rare species of mammals that lay eggs and incubate them. On the other hand, some birds are deficient in one or more of the typical bird characters. The ostrich cannot fly. The penguin can neither fly nor run, and cannot even walk well. The cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, leaving to them the hatching and rearing of its young. These exceptional cases are very interesting because they show that animals now quite different in structure and habits had a common origin, but in no case is there such a combination of characters that any doubt arises whether the creature is a bird or a mammal. The characters which typically belong to birds attain their highest development in them, and in most cases this is due to peculiar adaptabilities of the feathers.

The Anglo-Saxons' name for a bird was fugol (the flying animal). The young feathered creature they called bridd (the thing brooded). This name was also sometimes given to young mammals, but it applied especially to the young of feathered creatures which were more dependent upon the parent for warmth than others. Our English words "fowl" and "bird" come from these Anglo-Saxon terms. At first "fowl" was applied to large birds and "bird" to small ones, but gradually the use of the name "fowl" was limited to the common domestic fowl, and "bird" became the generic name for all feathered creatures.

Place of birds in the animal kingdom. Zoölogists rank mammals higher than birds because man is a mammal and his general superiority to other creatures determines the rank of the class to which he belongs. Yet, while placing birds below mammals in a simple classification of animals, naturalists point out that birds are the most distinct class in the animal kingdom. If we compare birds and the lower mammals, and compare the relations of each class to man, we see at once that nothing else could take the place of birds either in nature or in civilization. Among birds are found the highest developments of animal locomotion and of the natural voice, capacity for language far beyond that of other creatures (except man), and family and community relations resembling those of the human race. Hitherto in the history of the world mammals have been more useful to man than birds, but birds have given him some of his best ideas, and with the advance of civilization the lower mammals become less necessary and birds more necessary to him.

Flight of birds. It has been said that "on the earth and on the sea man has attained to powers of locomotion with which, in strength, endurance, and velocity, no animal movement can compare. But the air is an element on which he cannot travel, an ocean which he cannot navigate. The birds