NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 167 



ducks, and the like ; their perpetual clamour prevents them from 

 dispersing and losing their companions. 



In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much as can be 

 expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all the infinite variety 

 of the feathered nation. We shall therefore confine the remainder of 

 this letter to the few domestic fowls of our yards, which are most 

 known, and therefore best understood. And first the peacock, with his 

 gorgeous train, demands our attention ; but, like most of the gaudy 

 birds, his notes are grating and shocking to the ear : the yelling of cats, 

 and the braying of an ass, are not more disgustful. The voice of the 

 goose is trumpet-like, and clanking; and once saved the Capitol at 

 Kome, as grave historians assert : the hiss, also, of the gander, is for- 

 midable and full of menace, and " protective of his young." Among 

 ducks the sexual distinction of voice is remarkable ; for, while the 

 quack of the female is loud and sonorous, the voice of the drake is 

 inward and harsh, and feeble, and scarce discernible. The cock turkey 

 struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most uncouth manner; he 

 hath also a pert and petulant note when he attacks his adversary. 

 When a hen turkey leads forth her young brood she keeps a watchful 

 eye ; and if a bird of prey appear, though ever so high in the air, 

 the careful mother announces the enemy with a little inward moan, 

 and watches him with a steady and attentive look ; but, if he approach, 

 her note becomes earnest and alarming, and her outcries are 

 redoubled. 



No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of expres- 

 sion and so copious a language as common poultry. Take a chicken 

 of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window where there are 

 flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, with little twitterings of 

 complacency ; but if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at once its note 

 becomes harsh, and expressive of disapprobation and a sense of danger. 

 When a pullet is ready to lay she intimates the event by a joyous and 

 easy soft note. Of all the occurrences of their life that of laying seems 

 to be the most important ; for no sooner has a hen disburdened herself, 

 than she rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, which the cock and 

 the rest of his mistresses immediately adopt. The tumult is not 

 confined to the family concerned, but catches from yard to yard, and 

 spreads to every homestead within hearing, till at last the whole village 

 is in an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a mother her new relation 

 demands a new language ; she then runs clocking and screaming about, 

 and seems agitated as if possessed. The father of the flock has also a 

 considerable vocabulary ; if he finds food, he calls a favourite concubine 

 to partake ; and if a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice he. 

 bids his family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at command, his 

 amorous phrases and his terms of defiance. But the sound by which 

 he is best known is his crowing : by this he has been distinguished in 

 all ages as the countryman's clock or larum, as the watchman that 

 proclaims the divisions, of the night. Thus the poet elegantly styles 

 him : 



the crested cock, whose clarion sounds 



The silent hours." 



