6 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



on wild seeds, grass, berries, insects, and so 

 on. They cannot go very far away from 

 the woods for their food for fear of eagles, 

 which are always ready to pounce upon them 

 if they catch them in the open. 



The wild hen makes a very rough sort of 

 nest on the ground, like a hen pheasant, and 

 only lays about half-a-dozen eggs. However, 

 I expect she finds that number of chickens 

 quite as many as she can look after, although 

 she is a very brave and careful mother, for 

 what with hawks, crows, snakes, mongooses, 

 jackals, and half-a-dozen other enemies, she 

 has plenty to do if she wants to bring up any 

 of them. No one knows exactly when these 

 wild fowls were first tamed, but they are quite 

 easy to tame, whether you catch them young 

 or old ; I used to know of a jungle-cock 

 which had been caught full-grown, and which 

 went about a yard with the tame fowls quite 

 at liberty, though he disappeared in the end. 

 All we know is that, as one would expect, the 

 Persians had fowls before the Greeks, for the 

 Greeks call the fowl " the Persian bird " ; then 

 the Romans must have got them from the 

 Greeks, and one or other of these two nations 



