THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 259 



withm his domain, he immediately attacks the intruder, and if possi- 

 ble, drives him away. 



nis jealousy does not, however, seem to be altogether confined to 

 his rivals. It has sometimes been observed to extend even to his 

 beloved female ; and he appears capable of being actuated by revenge, 

 founded on suspicions of her conjugal infidelity. Dr. Tercival, ia his 

 Dissertations, relates an incident that happened at the seat of a gentle 

 man near Berwick, which justifies this remark. " My mowers," say? 

 this gentleman, "cut a Partridge on her nest; and immediately brought 

 the eggs (fourteen in number) to the house. I ordered them to be pu 

 under a very large and beautiful hen, and her own to be taken away 

 They were hatched in two days, and the hen brought them up perfectly 

 well till they were five or six weeks old. During that time they werj- 

 constantly kept in an out-house, without being seen by any of the 

 other poultry. The door happening to be left open, the cock got in. 

 My housekeeper, hearing the hen in distress, ran to her assistance ; 

 but did not arrive in time to save her life. The cock, observing her 

 with the brood of Partridges, had fallen upon her with the utmost 

 fury, and killed her. The housekeeper found him tearing the hen 

 with both his beak and spurs; although she was then fluttering in the 

 hist agony, and incapable of any resistance. This hen had formerh 

 been the cock's greatest favorite." 



Mr. Jesse says : " I am always sorry to see the anxiety and misery of 

 a hen who has hatched ducks. When they take to the water she is in 

 j)erfect agony, running round the brink of the pond, and sometimes 

 flying into it, in hopes of rescuing her brood. A hen who had reared 

 three broods of ducks became so habituated to their taking to the water,, 

 that she would fly to a large stone in the middle of the pond, and 

 patiently watch her brood as they swam about. The fourth year she 

 hatched her own eggs, and finding that her chickens did not take to the 

 water, she flew to the stone in the pond, and called to them with utmost 

 eagerness." 



The patience and perseverance of the hen in hatching, are truly ex- 

 traordinary. She covers her eggs with her wings, fostering them with ai 

 genial warmth ; and often turns them, and changes their situatioes, that 

 all their parts may receive an equal degree of heat. She seems to see the 

 importance of her employment; and is so intent on her occupation,, a:> 

 to neglect in some measure even the necessary supplies of food and 

 drink. In about three weeks the young brood burst from thei: 

 confinement; and the hen, from the most cowardly and voracious, 

 becomes (in the protection of her young) the most daring and 

 abstemious of all birds. If she cast her eyes on a grain of corn, a 

 crumb of bread, or any aliment, though ever so inconsiderable, that 

 is capable of division, she will not touch the least portion of it; 

 but gives her numerous train immediate notice of her success, 

 by a peculiar call, which they all understand. They flock in an in- 

 8 ant round her, and the whole treasure is appropriated to them. 

 Though by nature timid, and apt to fly from the smallest assailant 

 yet when marching at the head of her brood she is a heroine, she i» 

 17 



