84 OUR DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



at the town of Kazeroon, on their way to 

 Shiraz, heard a strange account of two re- 

 markable creatures that were to be seen at a 

 village fifteen miles distant. In answer to the 

 questions which their curiosity prompted them 

 to put, one old man said — They are very like 

 birds, for they have feathers and two legs, and 

 one of them has a long black beard on the 

 breast. But the chief point on which they 

 dwelt was the strangeness of their voice, so 

 unlike that of any other bird they had ever 

 heard. An old man who had gone all the 

 way from Kazeroon to see them, said that the 

 sound was very much like that of the Arabic 

 language, but, nevertheless, he added, though 

 he had listened to them with the greatest 

 attention, he had not been able to understand 

 a word they said. At great inconvenience, 

 and with no little fatigue from the badness of 

 the roads, the two Englishmen, excited by 

 curiosity, gained the village : they were taken 

 to the place where these strange creatures 

 were kept, the door was unlocked, and, lo ! 

 out marched a turkey-cock and his mate. 

 The former rejoicing in his freedom began to 

 strut about, and gobble his Arabic, with 

 great vociferation. When informed . by the 



