174 Next to the Ground 



Cocks, which crow all the year round for 

 midnight and for daybreak, begin early in 

 November to crow more and more frequently, 

 until at Christmas, according to Shakespeare : 



" The bird of morning singeth all night long." 



Shakespeare and superstition agree that the 

 constant crowing is to banish ghosts and 

 witches, and make the nights safe and whole- 

 some all through the holy days. Science con- 

 trariwise, says atavism — throwing back to the 

 jungle days, when the wild ancestors of our 

 domestic fowls sounded their clarions as a sort 

 of sentry-call to frighten ofFnight prowlers, who 

 are always most audacious and most bloodthirsty 

 at this special season. A fact in support of 

 science is that you may set cocks crowing as 

 the nights lengthen, anytime after nine o'clock, 

 by lightly disturbing the roost, or even moving 

 about it carrying a torch or lighted lantern. 



Cocks never crow simultaneously. Some- 

 times a veteran begins, oftener a pert young 

 cockerel half rouses, flaps his wings three times, 

 and flings across the still dark his raucous 

 immature challenge. He may crow twice be- 

 fore he is answered. Generally better grown 

 cocks upon the same roost keep silence until 

 they hear from the neighbors. Then they 

 crow lustily two or three times, at intervals 

 of a minute. The sounds ripple from farm 



