MENTAL TRAITS IN THE POULTRY-YARD, 629 



the latter began his usual tactics of worrying his enemy, taking 

 precious care of himself all the time. He was never fond of hard 

 hitting, but trusted mainly to trickery. The big Cochin would 

 stretch his neck up, now and then^ and thunder out a ponderous 

 challenge, and every time the agile Leghorn made a quick rush, 

 sometimes going six feet, and knocked the helpless Asiatic nearly 

 or quite off his feet before he could stop crowing or lower his 

 head. When the victim recovered, his foe was invariably out of 

 reach. At last the white rooster was given a taste of his own 

 clever tactics. He had been crowing freely with impunity all the 

 time, but suddenly, as he began another shrill taunt, he was startled 

 by a rush like his own and knocked over before he could get into 

 position for defense. After that the Cochin never missed a chance 

 to use this artifice in fighting, with other cocks as well as the 

 white Leghorn. He had acquired skill as truly as any general 

 ever did. 



An amusing test of the difference of disposition in barn- 

 yard fowls may be made by placing a piece of looking-glass 

 against the trunk of a large tree, and laying a train of corn in 

 front of it. Some hens will discover what they all take for a 

 new arrival with mild curiosity and merely look at it intently, 

 perhaps peering around behind the tree, and then walk quietly 

 away. Others peck the glass angrily and insist upon fighting, 

 while a few nervous females show much the same noisy excite- 

 ment that seizes upon most hens when they spy a snake. We 

 tried the valiant old autocrat of the farm-yard with this trick, 

 and he was at once roused to fury. Dropping his head when some 

 ten feet in front of the glass, he began the cautious advance by 

 parallels, which every one familiar with poultry has seen before 

 a fight. But, of course, he soon lost his enemy by moving too far 

 to one side. After crowing fiercely and looking around uneasily 

 for a few moments, he returned to the train of corn, and almost 

 instantly saw the strange cock nearer than before. More stealthy 

 approach, another failure to keep sight of the foe, and greater 

 excitement, and a third time he began to eat, only to be startled 

 by the hostile presence nearer than ever. At last he worked right 

 up to the glass and braced himself for the shock of combat, the 

 counterfeit, of course, following his every movement with omi- 

 nous celerity. There was one fierce peck at the angry head in 

 the glass, and then a crash, as our infuriated champion hurled 

 himself against his likeness, breaking the glass into a hundred 

 fragments. The mingling of astonishment, rage, and triumph in 

 this bird's appearance, as he whirled about, startled at the crack- 

 ing noise, and bewildered by the total disappearance of his enemy, 

 was comical to behold. Then he rushed around behind the big 

 pear-tree, evidently thinking that the cowardly stranger might be 



