Bir.i)8. 107 



ot the fcatliered kind, but peck tlieir food, and forsaking their 

 nests, run here and there, following the parent wherever it is to 

 be found. She leads them fonvard where they are likely to 

 have the greatest quantity of grain, and takes care to sliow by 

 pecking, the sort proper for them to seek for. Though at other 

 times voracious, she is then abstemious to an extreme degree ; and 

 intent only on providing for, and showing her young clutch their 

 food, she scarcely takes any nourishment herself. Jler parental 

 pride seems to overpower ever other appetite : but that decreases 

 in proportion as her young ones are more able to provide for 

 themselves, and then all her voracious habits return. 



Among the other habits peculiar to this class of birds is that 

 of dusting themselves. They lie flat in some dusty place, and 

 with their wings and feet raise and scatter the dust over their 

 whole body. What may be their reason for thus doing, it is not 

 easy to explain. Perhaps the heat of their bodies is such, that 

 they require this powder to be interposed between their feathers, 

 to keep them from lying too close together, and thus increasing 

 that heat with which they are incommoded. 



CHAP. II. 



OF THE COCK. 



All birds taken under the protection of man lose a part of 

 their natural figure, and are altered, not only in their habits, but 

 their very form. Climate, food, and captivity, are three very 

 powerful agents in producing these alterations ; and those birds 

 that have longest felt their influence under human direction are 

 the most likely to have the greatest variety in their figures, their 

 plumage, and their dispositions. 



Of all other birds, the cock seems to be the oldest companion 

 of mankind, to have been first reclaimed from the forest, and 

 taken to supply the accidental failure of the luxuries or necessi- 

 ties of life. As he is thus longest under the care of man, so of 

 all others perhaps he exhibits the greatest number of varieties, 

 there being scarce two birds of this species that exactly resemble 

 each other in plumage atid form. The tail which makes such a 



