CHAPTEE VIII 



THE POULABD 1 



T N a month the young chickens are strong enough 

 X to do without the tender care of their early days. 

 The pap, the dainty dish of hard-boiled eggs mixed 

 with lettuce and bread crumbs, is no longer served to 

 them, but their rations consist simply of grain and 

 green stuff. This kind of weaning is not effected 

 without some regret on their part at the remem- 

 brance of the pap ; but the mother makes amends for 

 it by teaching them to scratch the earth and seek in- 

 sects and worms, a royal feast for them. She shows 

 them how a fly should be snapped up when warming 

 itself in the sun against the wall ; how the worm is to 

 be caught and drawn from the ground -before it goes 

 into its hole. She shows them in what manner to 

 proceed in order to derive the largest profit from a 

 tuft of grass where the ants have stored their eggs ; 

 with what nice attention they must search the under 

 side of large leaves where various insects are in 

 hiding. How to carry out little predatory excur- 

 sions in the neighboring cultivated fields when op- 

 portunity offers, how to scratch up the newly made 

 garden-plots and rummage in every nook and cor- 



iThe poulard (French poularde) bears the same relation to the 

 pullet as the capon does to the young rooster. Translator. 



54 



