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THE HI6T0RY OP 



not out-of-the-way fere with them. They are amazingly 

 fond of com, especially a good deal of it. They will eat 

 wheaten bread, rather than want. 



They are very inquisitive in theiii nature. Their habit 

 of stalking around the dwelling-house, and popping their 

 heads into the garret-windows, is evidence of this peculiar 

 trait. 



Their flesh is firm and compact, and requires a great deal 

 of eating to do it justice. Like Barney Bradley's leather 

 " O-no-we-never-mention-'ems," when cut up and stewed 

 for tripe, " a fellow could eat a whole bushel of potatoes to 

 the plateful." It is of the color of a stale red herring, and 

 very much like that edible in taste. Its scarcity constitutes 

 its value. 



This rara avis in terris grows to a height somewnere 

 between .00 feet .16 inches and 25 feet. Its weight 

 somewhat between .06 pounds and 1 cwt. It never 

 lays, except when it rolls itself in the sand. The female 

 fowls sometimes do that duty, though amazingly sel- 

 dom. 



Mr. Snooks says he will back his Bother' em, for a chicken- 

 feast, to outcrow any three asthmatical steam-whistles that 

 any railroad company can scare up; and adds, "I am 

 ashamed of the prejudice which makes my fellow-men 

 unjust. The Fowl Society — the New England organiza- 

 tion, I mean — repudiate the special merits of my Bother' em 



