52 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



the hen saw it. Danger threatens, the rapacious bird 

 is not far away. At the note of alarm the young 

 chickens hasten to take refuge under the mother, who 

 makes a rampart for them of her wings. And now 

 the ravisher may come. This mother, so feeble, so 

 timid, that a mere nothing would put her to flight 

 on all other occasions, becomes imposingly audacious 

 where her brood is concerned. Let the goshawk ap- 

 pear, and the hen, full of tenderness and intrepidity, 

 will throw herself in front of the terrible talons. By 

 the beating of her wings, her redoubled cries, her 

 furious pecks with her beak, she will hold her own 

 against the bird of prey, until at last it beats a re- 

 treat, repulsed by this indomitable resistance. 



"The attachment of the hen to her young is shown 

 in another very remarkable circumstance. As she is 

 an excellent brooder, they sometimes give her ducks ' 

 eggs to hatch. The hen brings up her adopted fam- 

 ily as she would her own ; she exercises the same care 

 over the little ducks as she would over chickens of 

 her own. All goes well as long as the ducklings, cov- 

 ered with a velvety yellow down, conform to the ways 

 of their nurse and run under her wing at the first 

 summons. But a time comes when their aquatic in- 

 stinct awakens. They smell the pond, the neighbor- 

 ing pond, where the frog croaks and the tadpole 

 frisks. They go waddling along, one after another, 

 the old hen following them in ignorance of their proj- 

 ect. They reach the pond and dash into the water. 

 Then it is that the hen, believing the very lives of her 

 little ones in peril, gives vent to the most desperate 



