DOMESTIC FOWL 439 



There were several human witnesses. It is a question 

 whether Min ever understood where that mouse went to. 



Feb. 4, 1857. Minott says that Dr. Heywood used to 

 have a crazy hen (and he, too, has had one). She went 

 about by herself uttering a peevish craw craw, and did 

 nofrlay. One day he was going along on the narrow penin- 

 sula of Goose Pond looking for ducks, away in "Walden 

 Woods a mile and a half from Heywood's, when he 

 met this very hen, which passed close by him, uttering 

 as usual a faint craw craw. He knew her perfectly well, 

 and says that he was never so surprised at anything 

 in his life. How she had escaped the foxes and hawks 

 was more than he knew. 



Feb. 8, 1857. Riordan's solitary cock, standing on 

 such an icy snow-heap, feels the influence of the soft- 

 ened air, and the steam from patches of bare ground 

 here and there, and has found his voice again. The 

 warm air has thawed the music in his throat, and he 

 crows lustily and unweariedly, his voice rising to the 

 last. 



April 26, 1857. Riordan's cock follows close after 

 me while spading in the garden, and hens commonly 

 follow the gardener and ploughman, just as cowbirds 

 the cattle in a pasture. 



Sept. 30, 1857. Talked with Minott, who was sitting, 

 as usual, in his wood-shed. His hen and chickens, find- 

 ing it cold these nights on the trees behind the house, 

 had begun last night to roost in the shed, and one by 

 one walked or hopped up a ladder within a foot of his 

 shoulder to the loft above. He sits there so much like 

 a fixture that they do not regard him. It has got to be 



