CHAP. II.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 47 



affection for her brood, when become a mother, 

 and her courage in protecting them, seems to 

 change her very nature ; for instead of being 

 ravenous of food, and of singular cowardice, 

 she searches for and abstains from everything 

 which her chickens can eat, and, far from 

 being the timid bird of her former habits, she 

 boldly attacks any creature that attempts to 

 injure them. We have seen her fly at a cat 

 which had pounced from a wall upon one of 

 her nurslings, and drive hiin away by flutter- 

 ing and pecking at him, though sorely wounded 

 in the encounter; and many are those who 

 have witnessed the affecting solicitude with 

 which she shrouds her little progeny under 

 her wing when she sees a hawk hovering in 

 the air : fearless for herself, and only careful 

 of their safety. An instance of which affec- 

 tion in the feathered tribe is thus recorded in 

 the Natural History of Selborne : — 



" A gentleman in the neighbourhood had 

 directed one of his waggons to be packed with 

 hampers and boxes, intending to send it to 

 Worthing, where he was going himself. For 

 some time his departure was deferred, and he 

 therefore ordered that the waggon should be 



