thirteen to eighteen, and she lays a second time; as Mr. Dixon has remarked,
"high-feeding, care, and moderate warmth induce a habit of prolificacy which
becomes in some measure hereditary." Whether the semi-domesticated dovecote
pigeon is more fertile than the wild rock-pigeon, C. livia, I know not; but
the more thoroughly domesticated breeds are nearly twice as fertile as
dovecotes: the latter, however, when caged and highly fed, become equally
fertile with house pigeons. I hear from Judge Caton that the wild turkey in
the United States does not breed when a year old, as the domesticated turkeys
there invariably do. The peahen alone of domesticated birds is rather more
fertile, according to some accounts, when wild in its native Indian home, than
in Europe when exposed to our much colder climate. (16/33. For the eggs of
Gallus bankiva see Blyth in 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 2nd series volume
1 1848 page 456. For wild and tame ducks Macgillivray 'British Birds' volume 5
page 37; and 'Die Enten' s. 87. For wild geese L. Lloyd 'Scandinavian
Adventures' volume 2 1854 page 413; and for tame geese 'Ornamental Poultry' by
Rev. E.S. Dixon page 139. On the breeding of Pigeons Pistor 'Das Ganze der
Taubenzucht' 1831 s. 48; and Boitard and Corbie 'Les Pigeons' page 158. With
respect to peacocks, according to Temminck 'Hist. Nat. Gen. des Pigeons' etc.
1813 tome 2 page 41, the hen lays in India even as many as twenty eggs; but
according to Jerdon and another writer quoted in Tegetmeier 'Poultry Book'
1866 pages 280, 282, she there lays only from four to nine or ten eggs: in
England she is said, in the 'Poultry Book' to lay five or six, but another
writer says from eight to twelve eggs.)

With respect to plants, no one would expect wheat to tiller more, and each ear
to produce more grain, in poor than in rich soil; or to get in poor soil a
heavy crop of peas or beans. Seeds vary so much in number that it is difficult
to estimate them; but on comparing beds of carrots in a nursery garden with
wild plants, the former seemed to produce about twice as much seed. Cultivated
cabbages yielded thrice as many pods by measure as wild cabbages from the