DOMESTIC FOWLS. 303 



ties which belong to knighthood. He is jealous, and has been 

 known to kill a hen which has hatched a foreign brood ; and 

 he is chivalrous both in the treatment of his hens and in 

 their defence against their enemies. He has a sense of justice 

 too, which he does not hesitate to assert on occasion. Mrs. 

 Bowdich says : " On one occasion I saw a cock pursue a 

 hen round the poultry-yard ; and, as she had a worm in her 

 bill, I at first thought he was so acting from a greedy desire 

 to have the delicious morsel; but when he at last caught 

 her, he gave her a knock on the head with his beak, and, 

 taking up the worm which she had dropped, brought it to 

 another hen, who stood witnessing the affray in mute expec- 

 tation. A further knowledge of the habits of these birds has 

 made me feel sure she had purloined the worm from the 

 other, and the cock had restored it to its rightful owner." 

 Though natural fighters, cocks sometimes form friendships 

 for each other, and Captain Brown records an instance of 

 two game cocks, belonging to the same owner, who obsti- 

 nately declined combat though all means were tried to excite 

 mutual animosity. These same birds when placed in the ring 

 with other cocks fought furiously, and in both cases destroyed 

 their antagonists. 



The Common The hen gathering her chickens under her wings 

 Hon. is a favourite tj^e of motherhood, and it cannot 

 be denied that in many ways the hen shows herself a model 

 parent. The care she will expend upon her brood, or upon 

 a brood of ducks which she may have hatched, is well known, 

 and the courage she will show in their defence is well attested. 

 The following from the "Percy Anecdotes" is an illustration 

 of this: "In Jime, 1820, a contest of rather an unusual 

 nature took place in the house of Mr. Collins, at Naul in 

 Ireland. The parties concerned were, a hen of the game 

 species, and a rat of the middle size. The hen, in an acci- 

 dental perambulation round a spacious room, accompanied 

 by an only chicken, the sole surviving offspring of a numerous 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



