CHAP. II.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 45 



neither cover a proper number of eggs, nor 

 can she impart sufficient warmth to her brood. 

 She should also be good-tempered ; for, as 

 bickerings and dissensions do occasionally 

 occur in the best regulated families, a shrew- 

 ish, termagant hen will now and then peck 

 violently at her lord, instead of passively 

 yielding to his wishes or commands ; though 

 he, acting with characteristic spirit, is never 

 known either to return the attack, or make 

 any defence, although strong enough to mas- 

 ter a dozen such rebels. Reaumur tells us of 

 two hens which he had shut up with a cock 

 — all three living together for some time in 

 the greatest harmony ; when, all on a sudden, 

 the hens both attacked him without any appa- 

 rent cause, yet with such fury that in the 

 course of five or six days they actually killed 

 him : though being then cooped, in order to 

 tame them, they afterwards received the ca- 

 resses of another without any reluctance. It 

 has, indeed, sometimes happened that the 

 whole covey of the cock's mates have jointly 

 flown upon him in anger for some offensive 

 neglect of which he had been guilty : in which 

 case — as we must suppose the punishment to 



