46 OUR DO^^■STIC fotais. 



mania ; and VtC are credibly informed, " that 

 instances have occurred of a father staking his 

 children or wife, and a son his mother and 

 sisters, on the issue of a battle." 



Of the utility of the fowl as an article of 

 food, and of the goodness of its eggs, little 

 need here be said ; — all are aware of the vast 

 numbers of the former consumed in the metro- 

 polis alone ; and with respect to the latter, 

 thousands are annually imported from France 

 to meet the demands of the market. In all 

 ages, the cock has been celebrated as the har- 

 binger of morn, the herald of the sun, whose 

 clarion sounds before the break of day. 

 " Watch ye, therefore," says our Saviour, "for 

 ye know not when the master of the house 

 cometh ; at even, or at midnight, or at the 

 cock-crowing, or in the morning." 



Though the common fowl is now widely 

 spread, it is not adapted for the high boreal 

 regions. It is not found to breed in the north- 

 ern parts of Siberia, and in Iceland is kept 

 only as a rarity. The manners of the ordinary 

 fowl are too well known to require comment, 

 — their mode of scratching the earth in quest 

 of insects, their fondness for dusting their 

 plumage, the proud strut of the cock at the 



