either bird when disturbed in the vicinity 

 of their home will skulk through the 

 grass for some distance and, if necessity 

 of refuge requires flight, will rise from a 

 point sufficiently far away to mislead the 

 intruder. 



Both sexes bear the responsibilities of 

 brooding and their home life seems to be 

 one round of contentment. ''Although 



the male seeks to win the affections of his 

 lady love by persistently shrilling near 

 her the story of his passion he generally 

 represses his love trills near the home 

 which his mistress has established. ^ "^ "^ 

 Cheer her he must, however, and sO' he 

 trills throughout the day from fancied 

 situations within her hearing, yet safely 

 removed from the guarded spot." 



A HAPPY FAMILY. 



'Tapa" is now the name of our college 

 rooster, his hereditary name, however, 

 having been the ''Duke of Wellington," 

 since he always claimed that he descend- 

 ed from renowned English stock. Be all 

 that as it may, he is a handsome bird of 

 portly proportions and of deep orange 

 and golden plumage. He sports a superb 

 mural crown and has brilliant eyes ever 

 on the watch for the welfare of his nu- 

 merous family of wives and children. 

 Altogether he is a domestic hero and 

 steps as proudly as ever Hector trod the 

 plains of ancient Troy, while his clarion 

 voice wakes the morning echoes for miles 

 around. 



Now, the reason why our big rooster 

 is called Papa springs from quite a novel 

 circumstance all his own and which has 

 been for some time the town talk among 

 the Four Hundred of our poultry social 

 circles. The curious affair was strictly 

 in this wise : Late last fall, or, tO' be 

 more definite, about the middle of No- 

 vember, one of our little hens, "Biddy 

 the Bantam," stole her nest, as old house- 

 wives would put it, in the adjoining 

 thicket, and in the fullness of time 

 brought off an even dozen as bright, 

 cherry chicks as ever gladdened the heart 

 of a mother partlet. 



As soon as the chickens could nimbly 

 walk the provident hen led them to the 

 rear of the college kitchen to be properly 

 fed. 



Now it may suffice to enhance the in- 



terest of our story and perhaps make sev- 

 eral points more clearly understood by 

 the casual reader to say, or rather to 

 delicately intimate, sub rosa, of course, 

 that Biddy the Bantam was not the real 

 mother pure and simple of all the chick- 

 ens she had so industriously hatched and 

 brought off her fern embowered nest. 

 As it often happens in the best regulated 

 poultry yards, several other and bigger 

 hens had smuggled their own eggs into 

 Biddy's nest; a fact which would cer- 

 tainly have been a foregone conclusion in 

 a few days from the difference in size of 

 the chickens if for no other reason. I 

 am sorry to say, however, that when the 

 truth leaked out it was an every day 

 scandal from one end of the poultry yard 

 to the other. But Biddy the Bantam, like 

 the brave little mother she was, pondered 

 these things in her heart, lived down the 

 wicked calumny and raised her family 

 despite the alleged illegitimacy of three 

 or four of the longer legged youngsters. 



It was determined by the college au- 

 thorities that everything should be done 

 for the comfort of the rather untimely 

 brood notwithstanding the lateness of the 

 season and the threatened cold weather. 

 To this end mother and chicks were put 

 into a nice warm dr}'- goods box with 

 plenty of soft hay for a bed, and the 

 whole establishment placed under the 

 south veranda of our main building. 



Well, with plenty of food the chickens 

 grew, Biddy the Bantam was happy, and 



72 



