NATURAL HISTORY. 



273 



" While the cock with lively din, 

 Scatters the rear of darkness thin, 

 And to the stack or the barn door, 

 Stoutly struts his dames before." MILTON. 



863. Why 



domesticated ? 



has the common fowl become thoroughly 



Because, being omnivorous 

 it delights in that great 

 variety of food which 

 proximity to man affords ; 

 while its hardy nature enables 

 it to support great variations 

 of season and temperature. 



This rule is not without 

 limitation : the barn-door fowl 

 does not thrive or breed in 

 very cold climates. Every 

 attempt to introduce it to 

 buch countries as Siberia has 

 hitherto failed. 



864. Why have common poultry limited powers of flight ? 



Because they have little use for wings : only requiring those 

 organs to assist their legs when alarmed, or in reaching the 

 perches upon which th-^y pass the hours of repose. 



865. The chief use of the wings of the gallinidse, besides enabling those which 

 perch during the mght to reach their perches, appears to be safety agninst 

 quadrupedal foes. Their fluttering gets them, perhaps, sooner above the reach of 

 these than if they had a more steady and forward style of flight. From birds of 

 prey they may be said, one and all, to be incapable of escaping on the wing : their 

 safety from these consists in crouching among the clods or lurking among the 

 herbage. Their wings are short, broad, and concave ; and also looser in the 

 plumage of their under sides than the wings of almost all other birds. All these 

 qualities enable them to take a firm hold on the air, which assists them in working 

 upwards ; though it renders flight more laborious. 



866. IVTiy do fowls prefer to roost in elevated places ? 

 Because they have an instinctive dread of vermin which inaj 



