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The annals of Ancient Egyptian king Thutmose III described a marvelous foreign bird that "gives birth daily."
古埃及国王图特摩斯三世的纪录里记载着一只“每天都生育”的奇妙的外来鸟。
Zoroastrians viewed them as spirits whose cries told of the cosmic struggle between darkness and light.
祆教视它们为呐喊着宇宙在黑暗与光明之间的困扰的灵魂。
Romans brought them on their military campaigns to foretell the success of future battles.
罗马人在战场上用它们来预测未来战事的胜算。
And today, this bird still occupies an important, though much less honorable position -- on our dinner plates.
而如今，这类鸟依然非常重要，虽然不再那么光彩地，出现在我们的餐桌上。
The modern chicken is descended primarily from the Red Junglefowl,
现代的鸡主要源自于红原鸡，
and partially from three other closely related species, all native to India and Southeast Asia.
部分源自于3个有密切关联的种类，它们全都源于印度和东南亚。
The region's bamboo plants produce massive amounts of fruit just once every few decades.
这个地带的竹子每十几年才生产大量的果实。
Junglefowls' ability to lay eggs daily may have evolved to take advantage of these rare feasts, increasing their population when food was abundant.
红原鸡每天都能下蛋的本领可能已经演变为利用这些罕见的盛宴，在食物充足时增加它们的数量。
This was something humans could exploit on a consistent basis,
这是人们一贯会利用的一点，
and the birds' weak flight capabilities and limited need for space made them easy to capture and contain.
鸟儿衰弱的飞行能力和对空间有限的需求使它们很容易被捉到。
The earliest domesticated chickens, dating at least back to 7,000 years ago, weren't bred for food, but for something considered less savory today.
最早的养的鸡，要追溯到至少7000年前，它们并不是养来吃的而是被用在非食用的其他方面。
The aggressiveness of breeding males, armed with natural leg spurs, made cockfighting a popular entertainment.
饲养的公鸡与生俱来的腿部力量，这种攻击性，使斗鸡变成一种很流行的娱乐。
By the second millennium BCE, chickens had spread from the Indus Valley to China and the Middle East
但是公元前二世纪，鸡从印度河流域遍布到中国和中东，
to occupy royal menageries and to be used in religious rituals.
占据了皇家动物园，也被在宗教仪式上使用。
But it was in Egypt where the next chapter in the bird's history began.
但是在埃及，鸟的历史的下一篇章拉开了序幕。
When a hen naturally incubates eggs, she will stop laying new ones and sit on a "clutch" of 6 or more eggs for 21 days.
当一个母鸡自然的孵蛋时，她会暂停生一个新蛋，而是在六个或多个蛋上坐21天。
By the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, the Egyptians had learned to artificially incubate chicken eggs by placing them in baskets over hot ashes.
等到了公元前一世纪中期，埃及人学会了通过把他们放在热灰上的篮子里来人工孵蛋。
That freed up hens to continue laying daily, and what had been a royal delicacy or religious offering became a common meal.
这让母鸡开始有自由每天下蛋，这才让以前的皇家专供食物或者宗教供品，成为了日常食物。
Around the same time as Egyptians were incubating eggs,
差不多在埃及人孵蛋的同个时间，
Phoenician merchants introduced chickens to Europe, where they quickly became an essential part of European livestock.
腓尼基商人把鸡引入到欧洲，在那里，鸡很快成为了欧洲家畜的重要组成部分。
However, for a long time, the chicken's revered status continued to exist alongside its culinary one.
然而，长时间以来，鸡被尊敬的地位即使变成烹饪食物，也一直存在着。
The Ancient Greeks used fighting roosters as inspirational examples for young soldiers.
古希腊人用斗鸡当成对年轻士兵的精神榜样。
The Romans consulted chickens as oracles. And as late as the 7th Century, the chicken was considered a symbol for Christianity.
罗马人把鸡当作神谕。到了七世纪，鸡被认作是基督教的象征。
Over the next few centuries, chickens accompanied humans wherever they went, spreading throughout the world through trade, conquest, and colonization.
之后的几个世纪，有人的地方，就有鸡，鸡通过贸易，战争，殖民统治遍布了世界。
After the Opium Wars, Chinese breeds were brought to England and crossed with local chickens.
鸦片战争之后，中国鸡被带到了英国和当地的鸡进行了杂交。
This gave rise to a phenomenon called "Hen Fever" or "The Fancy",
这引起了一个现象被称作“鸡热潮”，或“幻想”，
with farmers all over Europe striving to breed new varieties with particular combinations of traits.
欧洲的农民们全都开始养这个有着特别结合特征的新品种。
This trend also caught the attention of a certain Charles Darwin, who wondered if a similar selective breeding process occurred in nature.
这个趋势也带来了达尔文的一些关注，他好奇这种类似的选择性繁殖过程在大自然中是否存在。
Darwin would observe hundreds of chickens while finalizing his historic work introducing the theory of Evolution.
达尔文观察了上百只鸡，同时也写完了他史诗级的作品，介绍了进化的理论。
But the chicken's greatest contribution to science was yet to come.
但是鸡对科学最大的贡献还没到来。
In the early 20th century, a trio of British scientists conducted extensive crossbreeding of chickens,
20世纪初期，三个英国科学家操作了大量的鸡的杂交，
building on Gregor Mendel's studies of genetic inheritance.
完善了孟德尔的基因遗传学说。
With their high genetic diversity, many distinct traits, and only 7 months between generations, chickens were the perfect subject.
鸡有着高遗传多样性，很多不同的特性，每两代中间只有七个月间隔，这些特点让鸡成为了完美的研究对象。
This work resulted in the famous Punnett Square, used to show the genotypes that would result from breeding a given pairing.
这个研究带来了著名的旁氏表，是一种用来展示杂交给定组合的基因类型的表。
Since then, numerous breeding initiatives have made chickens bigger and meatier, and allowed them to lay more eggs than ever.
从那以后，很多饲养鸡变得又大又肥，能让它们生更多的鸡蛋。
Meanwhile, chicken production has shifted to an industrial, factory-like model,
同时，鸡的生产转变为工业化、工厂式的模型，
with birds raised in spaces with a footprint no larger than a sheet of paper.
禽类在不超过一张纸大小的地方长大。
And while there's been a shift towards free-range farming due to animal rights and environmental concerns,
同时，也有向散养农场的转变，这是出于对动物权利和环境的考虑，
most of the world's more than 22 billion chickens today are factory farmed.
世界上绝大多数，超过220亿的鸡是工厂养的。
From gladiators and gifts to the gods, to traveling companions and research subjects, chickens have played many roles over the centuries.
从公开表演的决斗者和给上帝的礼物，到旅行伴侣和研究对象，鸡在历史中扮演了重要的角色。
And though they may not have come before the proverbial egg, chickens' fascinating history tells us a great deal about our own.
尽管它可能比众所周知的蛋出现的更早，但鸡的迷人的历史也告诉了我们关于我们自己的历史。
