282 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



No, you never did, unless they cried out in some real or 

 fancied distress, that is, not unless the hen has chanced to 

 be a Dark Bramah ; for this best of all chicken mothers is 

 the only one of her race who turns her head to look behind 

 her as she promenades with her little ones ; no straggling 

 does she allow to go unnoticed, however quiet the prodigals 

 may be about it, nor however slyly they may get exactly 

 behind their '' dear mamma," she has eyes in the back of 

 her head, and they soon find out there is no hoodwinking 

 her ; neither does a poor little wight get entangled in the 

 weeds or grass, but that with beak and foot she manages 

 to extricate it ; if they are attacked by a foe, hawk, pig, 

 dog, or cat, she is bound to have her part in the fray, and 

 generally comes off victorious ; nor, like the majority of 

 good mothers in chickendom, does she persecute the fluffy 

 ones of other mothers ; on the contrary, we have frequently 

 known Bramah mothers, both Dark and Light, to adopt as 

 their own chicks that had been deserted by their rightful 

 mothers, knowing or making no difference between the 

 strangers and their original brood. 



An amusing instance of this strong instinct of mother- 

 hood in a Light Bramah hen came under our notice a few 

 months ago. 



A hen determined to set — they always are very deter- 

 mined, you know — had been shut up in a coop by herself 

 to compel her to a change of ideas. 



She was very indignant, as we all are when forced to 

 give up our own will, and after scolding and pouting she 

 put her head to one side, and looking out through her 

 prison bars — the said prison standing in the nursery-yard — 

 she gazed upon the multitude of young chickens around 

 her, and thought a thought original with herself: ''They 

 won't let me set ; very well then, I'll have a family without 

 setting-^so much the better for me ! " 



