But in the creatures
bred to furnish wool, feathers, or the like, some single feature was
always exaggerated into disproportionate dimensions. Thus the
_elnerve_ is loaded with long plumes, sometimes twice the length of
the body, and curled upward at the extremity, so that it can neither
fly nor run; and though its plumage is exquisitely beautiful, the
creature itself is simply ludicrous. It bears the same popular repute
for sagacity as the goose of European farmyards. The _angasto_ has
hair or wool so long that its limbs are almost hidden, just before
shearing-time, in the tresses that hang from the body half way to the
ground. The _calperze_, a bird no larger than a Norfolk turkey, has
the hinder part developed to an enormous size, so that the graceful
peacock-like neck and shoulders appear as if lost in the huge
proportions of the body, and the little wings are totally unfit to
raise it in the air; while it lays almost daily eggs as large as those
of the ostrich and of peculiar richness and flavour. Nearly all the
domestic birds kept for the sake of eggs or feathers have wings that
look as if they had been clipped, and are incapable of flight.
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