338 Next to the Ground 



or three chicks fly up at once. It takes 

 either a very hungry or very hard-headed 

 hen to withstand such assault. She may 

 keep moving for a few yards, but is sure to 

 end by settling down, spreading her wings, 

 and drawing in her neck, the while crooning 

 content, as her babies run underneath her 

 and nestle little heads against the warmth 

 of her bare breast. 



Brooding hens strip their breasts the better 

 to warm their eggs. Twice a day they turn 

 each egg completely over so the warmth may 

 be equal. They sit very close to the eggs, 

 but bear no weight upon them, any more 

 than they do upon their living chicks. Just 

 how it is managed it is not easy to say, but 

 in hovering their broods hens do not sit flat 

 down as they do asleep on the perch. They 

 poise their bodies mysteriously so as to come 

 within an inch or so of the ground, then 

 drop the wings, curtain-wise around the edges. 

 The bigger the brood, the more the wings 

 spread, but the loosening is the same with 

 one chick or with twenty. Very big broods 

 as they grow into the estate of spring chicken- 

 hood, huddle about their mother, well content 

 if they can get their heads in anywhere about 

 her. Fall broods, which are carried very 

 much longer than spring ones, indeed often 

 make the hen look a feathered freak with one 



