THE BROOD-HEN. 375 



a beautiful example of maternal tenderness is be- 

 fore him. Now she will be calling them to her 

 side to partake of some choice morsel which she 

 has scratched up from the ground ; now she will 

 sit 5 that all may come and shelter under her wings ; 

 and now she walks about uttering a low clucking 

 sound expressive of her affection towards her 

 young, and impressive of their obedience to her 

 summons. But when the hour of peril comes, 

 when the boisterous dog flies towards her as 

 if he would swallow her and her young at a gulp, 

 and, above all, when high over head the whirling 

 figure of the hawk is dc-scried who shall describe 

 her behaviour? Old John Bunyan, though no 

 ornithologist, was evidently a close observer of 

 nature ; and he has given us, in his usual quaint 

 style, a very accurate account of the conduct of 

 the hen, and of her young ones under such circum- 

 stances. But One greater than Bunyan, in a few 

 brief but emphatic words, conveys the same idea 

 to us when, in his lamentations over the ap- 

 proaching downfall of Jerusalem, he exclaimed, 

 " How often would I have gathered thy children 

 together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 

 under her wings, and ye would not !" 



