Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/668

Rh 644 T P U in and near Pottstown six rolling-mills, two blast-furnaces, three iron and brass foundries, two nail-factories, and large bridge works, besides minor industries. The population of Pottstown was 4125 in 1870, and 5305 in 1880. POTTSVILLE, a city of the United States, capital of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, lies 35 miles north-west of Reading, on the north side of the Schuylkill river, in the gap by which it breaks through Sharp Mountain. It is the terminus of the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and the great emporium of the Schuyl kill coal region, which extends north and east and west, and has an annual yield of about 6,000,000 tons. Fur naces, rolling-mills, machine-shops, planing-mills, a spike- mill, a pottery, etc., are among the industrial establish ments ; and the public institutions include a court-house, a jail, a town-hall, a union hall, an opera-house, a children s home, a lyceum, and a free reading-room. The German and Welsh elements in the population are strong enough to be represented each by several churches. Pottsville as a city dates from 1825. In 1850 it had 7515 inhabitants, 12,384 in 1870, and 13,253 in 1880. POUGHKEEPSIE, a city of the United States, capital of Duchess county, New York, lies on the east bank of the Hudson river, 73 miles north of New York. It is on the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and communicates with the New York, West Shore, and Buffalo Railway by ferry from Highland, and Avith the Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad by the Poughkeepsie, Hartford, and Boston Railroad (37 miles). The site con sists for the most part of a tableland which rises from 150 to 200 feet above the river, and is backed towards the east by College Hill, 300 feet in height. Well laid out with regular and shaded streets and abundantly sup plied with water (pumped from the river to a reservoir on College Hill), Poughkeepsie is a pleasant place of resid ence, and it enjoys a special reputation for its educational institutions. Vassar College (2 miles east of the city), the earliest and one of the greatest women s colleges in the world, was founded and endowed in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, a vealthyPoughkeepsie brewer; in 1884 it had 300 students, and possessed a library of 14,150 volumes, together with collections of water-colours and of American birds, both of great value, an astronomical observatory, and a chemical laboratory. Two miles north of the city, on an eminence above the Hudson, stands the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane, an immense building erected between 1867 and 1871, with 300 acres of ground attached. Within the city are an opera-house, a free public library, a large young men s Christian association building with a free reading-room, St Barnabas and Vassar Brothers Hospital, and homes for aged men and women. It also contains iron-furnaces, breweries, and manufactories of shoes, glass, mowing machines, pottery, hardware, and various minor industries. The population was 14,726 in 1860, 20,080 in 1870, and 20,207 in 1380. roughkeepsie (forty-two different spellings of the name are said to be found in old records) was settled by the Dutch about 1698- 1700^ Two sessions of the State legislature were held in the place in 1777 and 1778 ; the former gave assent to the articles of con federation, and the latter ratified the national constitution. The city charter dates from 1854. POULPE, or OCTOPUS. See CUTTLE-FISH, vol. vi. p. 735, and MOLLUSOA, vol. xvi. p. 669 */. POULTRY. The term &quot; poultry &quot; (Fr. oiseaux de basse cour) is usually regarded as including the whole of the domesticated birds reclaimed by man for the sake of their flesh and their eggs. 1 The most important are the Common Fowl, which is remarkable as having no distinctive English O 1 Although pigeons are not generally included among poultry, yet, on account of their close connexion, it has been deemed advisable to add a short section on them to this article. name, the Turkey, and the Guinea-fowl, all members of the family of birds known as Phasianidae. The Pheasants them selves, belonging to the restricted genus Phasionus, are not capable of being domesticated, and the Peacock is to be regarded rather as an ornamental than as a poultry bird. The aquatic birds which are strictly entitled to be con sidered domesticated poultry are the Duck and the Goose, two species of the latter having been perfectly reclaimed. The common fowl belongs to the restricted genus Callus, of which four wild species are known, the Bankiva Jungle fowl (G. ferrugineus), the Sonnerat Jungle fowl (G. sonnerati), the Ceylon Jungle fowl (G. stanleyi), and the Forked-tail Jungle fowl (G. furcatus). The range of these species is given under FOWL (vol. ix. pp. 491-492). The origin of the domesticated breeds is ascribed by Dar win, Blyth, and other naturalists to the Bankiva fowl, much stress being laid on the comparative want of fer tility in the hybrids produced between this species or the domesticated breeds and the other three forms of wild Galli, but it is probable that this want of fertility was due in great part to the unnatural conditions under which the parent and offspring were placed, as, if bred under more natural conditions, there is no difficulty in rearing these hybrids or in breeding from them with the domesticated varieties. The number of distinctive breeds of the domesti cated fowl has very greatly increased of late years, owing to the emulation excited by poultry shows. Darwin, in his Variation of Animals, d c., under Domestication, enumer ated thirteen principal breeds with numerous sub-varieties, but several very distinctive races have come into notice during the last ten years, varieties having been formed by careful selection that may be relied on for reproducing their own distinctive peculiarities in the descendants, and hence constituting what are regarded by fanciers as pure breeds. The classification of the known varieties is not an easy task ; each is capable of interbreeding with every other, and so great an intermixture of local races has taken place that the arrangement of the breeds is as difficult in poultry as in dogs. Game Fowls. Game fowls differ less from the wild Bankiva than any other variety ; they are, however, con siderably larger, and carry the tail more erect than the wild birds. In some parts of India sportsmen find it not easy to distinguish between the wild and the domesticated birds. Game fowls in England have been long cultivated not only as useful poultry but on account of their com bative tendencies, which have become so intensified by care ful selection that they have extended even to the other sex, and hens have been not unfrequently fought in the cock pit. The comb in the Game is single, the beak massive, the spurs strong and very sharp. There is a tendency towards the assumption of the female plumage by the males, and distinct breeds of &quot; lienny &quot; Game are known. The peculiarity is not associated with any loss of com- bativeness, the birds being highly valued for their courage and endurance in the pit. Economically considered, Game are highly esteemed for the table on account of their plump ness, the amount of the breast-meat, owing to the size of the pectoral muscles, being very great, from which cause, combined with their hardihood, they are most valuable for crossing with other breeds, as the Dorking. English-bred Game have been reared of many varieties of colour, retain ing in all cases their distinctive peculiarities of form. Within the last few years Game fowls have been reduced in size by selective breeding, and the exceedingly minute Game bantams have been produced with the distinguishing characters of the larger breed. During the last twenty years Game fowls have been considerably altered in form, owing to the influence of poultry shows, the legs and necks having been greatly lengthened. This has been