Poultry and Fowl

More than twelve thousand species of birds are dispersed throughout the world, and almost all are edible. Early humans probably took eggs from birds’ nests and consumed them, and later they figured out how to capture the birds themselves. Fowl had much to offer, as food and otherwise. Birds provided many advantages: eggs were eaten raw or cooked; poultry flesh was consumed; feathers had practical uses on arrows and as personal adornment, clothing, and ceremonial symbols; and birds such as ducks, geese, and storks were religious symbols. Chicken eggs and entrails were used for religious ceremonies, divination, and magic. Cock’s combs and other body parts were used in medicines, and roosters were used for gaming and entertainment in cockfights.