Creatures valued for their flesh, such as the _quorno_ (somewhat like
the eland, but with the single horn so common among its congeners in
Mars, and with a soft white hide), and the _viste_, a bird about the
size of the peacock, with the form of the partridge and the flavour of
grouse or black game, preserve more natural proportions. The
wing-quills of the latter, however, having been systematically plucked
for hundreds of generations, are now dwarfed and useless. These
animals are not encouraged to make fat on the one hand, or to develop
powerful muscles and sinews on the other. They are fed for part of the
year on the higher and thinner pastures of the mountains. When brought
down to the meadows of the plain, they are allowed to graze only for a
few hours before sunset and after sunrise. They thus preserve much of
the flavour of game or mountain sheep and cattle, which the oxen and
poultry of Europe have lost; flavour, not quantity, being the chief
object of care with Martial graziers. Sometimes, however, some
peculiarity perfectly useless, or even inconvenient, appears to be
naturally associated with that which is artificially developed.
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