GALLINACEOUS BIRDS 201 



counterbalanced by their power of rapid running. It is only when 

 compelled (give instances) that the fowl takes to flight, and it only seeks 

 the aid of its wings when the power of its legs proves insufficient. It is 

 by running that it tries to evade its enemies (hawks, cats, dogs, etc.), 

 and, in fact, it spends the whole day " on its legs " in search of — 

 III. Its food, which it finds on and under the ground. 



1. With the claws of its powerful front toes it scoops about untiringly 

 among dry leaves, in the loose soil, or on the dung-heap, looking for all 

 sorts of small worms, larvae, and tiny seeds. 



2. By means of its sharp eyes it can detect fragments so minute as to 

 be undiscoverable by human sight in the dark soil. 



3. The fowl cannot, however, satisfy its wants by what food it picks 

 up. It requires in addition to be fed. Among its favourite morsels are 

 grains of corn, barley, etc., juicy cabbage or lettuce leaves, earth-worms, 

 smooth green caterpillars, and cockchafers. It is, however, also satisfied 

 with all sorts of table refuse. The smaller fragments are swallowed 

 whole ; larger ones (cockchafers, caterpillars, boiled potatoes) are 

 chopped up with the powerful bill. With the aid of the latter, also, 

 it cuts up leaves piecemeal, the sharp edges of the upper beak over- 

 lapping and cutting against those of the lower bill in the manner of 

 shears. 



4. As the food consists principally of grains, the fowl, like the pigeon 

 (which see) is provided with a crop, a glandular proventriculum, and a 

 powerful muscular gizzard. 



5. The fowl does not drink in the same manner as the pigeon (which 

 see), inasmuch as the flaps which cover the cleft-like nostrils are hard, 

 and the latter therefore cannot be closed. It drinks really by scooping 

 up water in the concavity of the lower beak, raising its head and allowing 

 the water to run down into its throat. 



C. The Young. 



1. Artificial breeding has produced the result that a good hen lays 

 150 eggs, and even more, in the course of a year. (Why does no bird 

 living in a free state of nature produce so large a number ?) Only 

 about fifteen to twenty, however, are given to the " clucking hen " to be 

 incubated. After about three weeks the young chicks emerge from the 

 egg, little things clothed in yellow down, following the mother from the 

 day of their birth, and picking up their own food. One cannot picture a 

 more pleasing sight than that of a hen followed by her young ones ! 

 Whenever the mother happens to find a grain or a little worm, she never 

 fails to call up the chicks to receive the morsel. With the utmost self- 

 sacrifice, she defends her dear ones against dangers of every kind, and 



