308 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :8— Nov., 1912 



"My chicks and myself were kept in a coop for a few weeks. 

 The slats in front enabled them to run about, but because I could 

 not get out, they never wandered far enough to be lost in the 

 grass. We were soon allowed to go walking, however, so that we 

 presently forgot our weeks of confinement. 



"But, alas, children will grow up. When late summer came, 

 my chicks were quite independent of me. As time passed they 

 became fat and well fed in appearance. Alas, again, one night 

 the farmer caught all my boys and all but two of my girls, my 

 sweet little pullets, put them in a crate, and next morning drove 

 off with them, as we are driving now. I never saw my children 

 again! The two pullets remaining comforted me. Finer and 

 finer they grew until, late in the Fall, they presented the farmer's 

 wife with their first eggs, which were very small indeed. All 

 winter long, every other day, they each laid a nice brown egg. 

 Our owners were surprised for hens do not lay well in winter, 

 but we were full blooded and were fed with warm bran, potatoes 

 boiled in grease and water, beside corn and scraps. So now, in 

 my separation from them, I am consoled by this thought that I 

 can trust them to fittingly uphold the honor of our ancestral 

 name, Rhode Island Red !" 



Ended was the red hen's tale. Silence reigned, save for the 

 sound of the wheels passing from the dirt road to the smooth 

 pavement of the city street and the clatter of the horses' hoofs 

 on the same. 



"Guess you've bin to sleep, son, eh? 'Spected you'd fall off 

 a'fore this from the top o' them crates. Ear most squashed? 

 Wall, wall, now, I don' wonder, ye had it right over that crack in 

 the crate. Should have thought those hens in thar would ha' 

 kept you awake. Eh ? Ye waren't asleep at all ? Ye heard every 

 word they said? Who said? There, there, son, ye have not yit 

 woke up. We'll soon have these pesky old hens of Farmer 

 Brown's sold and ours too, and then we'll have some hot coffee 

 to rouse us up a bit, eh?" 



But Son never said a word. What was the use? 



News and Notes 



Special Offer to Teachers. 



Fifteen thousand dollars is at the disposal of the National 

 Association of Audubon Societies to be used during the school 

 year of 1912-13 in aiding teachers and pupils to push the work 

 of bird study in the schools. 



