As always, we got involved in an interesting discussion about chicken genetic mapping. I'm not aware of whether mapping of the various breeds is being done, but other resources are available. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research http://www.cgiar.org/, has created a database of local African and some Asian breeds, http://dagris.ilri.cgiar.org/. They’ve got 124 kinds of chickens, http://dagris.ilri.cgiar.org/browse.asp?SC=4&BN=&dlPageSize=4, but the ducks, geese and turkeys are not posted yet. The Food and Agriculture Organization surveyed geese some years back, http://www.fao.org/docrep/v6200t/v6200T0n.htm.
I'm encouraged that the United Nations is taking an interest in supporting local traditional breeds, rather than imposing industrial birds that will surely fail in the developing world.
These are the illustrations I mentioned from the Reliable Poultry Journal, dated 1902. They are by Franklane Sewell, distinguished poultry artist. He's the one Robert Frost mentioned in his poem, "A Blue Ribbon at Amesbury," about his favorite chicken: "In her we make ourselves acquainted/With one a Sewell might have painted."

Check this blog's archives for a series on Asiatics, including Brahmas, in January 2009.
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