UGLY DUCKLINGS 215 



personified. Except for a very rare squabble over a 

 tempting piece of food, the harmony of the brother- 

 hood is never broken. What more striking testimony 

 to this admirable quality can be offered than the 

 popular designation of the bird ? It is always one of 

 seven ; there is no word whereby the man in the street 

 may express an individual alone without his comrades. 

 Nor, indeed, does he require such a term, for it is 

 impossible to think of the bird otherwise than as one 

 of a company. Has anyone ever seen brother Number 

 One, or brother Number Two, or brother any other 

 number alone ? I trow not. These birds invariably 

 hunt in little societies ; usually eight or ten elect to 

 fight the battle of hfe shoulder to shoulder, and a 

 very good fight they appear to make of it, if we 

 may judge by their wide distribution and contented 

 faces. 



While upon the subject of the bird's name it is as 

 well to have the usual hit at the ornithologist. Just 

 as the popular name is appropriate, so is the scientific 

 one ridiculous. Crater opus canorus is a strange name 

 for a bird whose note is a cross between the creak of a 

 door with a rusty hinge and the squeak of a cart- 

 wheel of which the axle needs oiling. Nature, by way 

 of compensation, often endows a sombre-plumaged 

 bird with a sweet voice, and keeps down the pride of a 

 gorgeous fowl by ordaining that its voice shall be a 

 hoarse croak. To the seven brothers, however, the 

 wise dame has given two wooden spoons. Their raucous 

 voice is in keeping with their dull plumage. When 

 the honest little company are merely whispering 



