432 OBSERVATIONS ON 



The earnest and early propensity of the Gallince to 

 roost on high is very observable ; and discovers a strong 

 dread impressed on their spirits respecting vermin that 

 may annoy them on the ground during the hours of 

 darkness. Hence poultry, if left to themselves and not 

 housed, will perch the winter through on yew trees and 

 fir trees ; and turkeys and guinea fowls, heavy as they 

 are, get up into apple trees : pheasants also in woods 

 sleep on trees to avoid foxes ; while pea-fowls climb to 

 the tops of the highest trees round their owner's house 

 for security, let the weather be ever so cold or blowing. 

 Partridges, it is true, roost on the ground, not having 

 the faculty of perching; but then the same fear prevails 

 in their minds ; for, through apprehensions from pole- 

 cats and stoats, they never trust themselves to coverts, 

 but nestle together in the midst of large fields, far re- 

 moved from hedges and coppices, which they love to 

 haunt in the day, and where at that season they can 

 skulk more secure from the ravages of rapacious birds. 



As to ducks and geese, their awkward splay web- 

 feet forbid them to settle on trees; they therefore, in 

 the hours of darkness and danger, betake themselves to 

 their own element, the water, where amidst large lakes 

 and pools, like ships riding at anchor, they float the 

 whole night long in peace and security 5 . 



5 Guinea fowls not only roost on high, but in hard weather resort, even 

 in the daytime, to the very tops of the highest trees. 



Last winter, when the ground was covered with snow, I discovered all 

 my guinea fowls, in the middle of the day, sitting on the highest boughs 

 of some very tall elms, chattering and making a great clamour : I ordered 

 them to be driven down, lest they should be frozen to death in so ele- 

 vated a situation, but this was not effected without much difficulty, they 

 being very unwilling to quit their lofty abode, notwithstanding one of 

 them had its feet so much frozen that we were obliged to kill it. I know 

 not how to account for this, unless it was occasioned by their aversion to 

 the snow on the ground, they being birds that come originally from a hot 

 climate*. 



Notwithstanding the awkward splay web-feet (as Mr. White calls 



* In one of his Letters to Daines Barrington, LXII, Gilbert White has 

 remarked of poultry generally, that they are so dazzled and confounded 

 by the glare of snow, that they dared not, in the severe winter of 1776, to 

 stir from their roosting places. E. T. B. 



