170 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



greater as it advances to the age at which it is capa- 

 ble of taking care of itself. Probably the secretion 

 in the parent's crop is dependent upon a certain 

 degree of excitement caused by maternal affection ; 

 and, after a time, when this excitement wears off, by 

 reason of the increasing age of the young bird, it is 

 with difficulty elaborated. At length it ceases alto- 

 gether ; yet the habit of the young coming to its 

 parent to be fed is kept up for a while, in like man- 

 ner as we see nearly full-grown kittens and puppies 

 still occasionally pulling at their mother's teats after 

 they are dry. The scene above described may, at 

 any time, be witnessed by throwing down a little 

 hemp-seed into the cage where the parent and young 

 birds are, when, as soon as ever the former begin to 

 feed, the latter will be immediately at them impor- 

 tuning for a share. 



DOMESTIC COCK. 



" THE cock's shrill clarion" does not always wait for 

 the break of dawn, but is occasionally sounded during 

 the dead of the night, and this even in winter ; when, 

 if the air be still and frosty, the distance to which it 

 may be heard is quite surprising. I have at such 

 times distinctly heard two cocks calling to one 

 another from two different homesteads, situate a mile 

 and a half or more apart.* The notion of cocks 



* Mr. Blackwall has observed, that the hooting of the tawny 

 owl may be heard to the distance of a mile, or even two miles, 

 under very favourable circumstances. See Ann. and Mag. of 

 Nat. Hist. vol. xv. p. 167. 



