OF SELBORNE. 



57 



struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most 

 uncouth manner ; he hath also a pert and 

 petulant note when he attacks his adver- 

 sary. When a hen turkey leads forth her 

 young brood she keeps a watchful^ eye : 

 and if a bird of prey appear, though ever 

 so high in the air, the careful mother 

 announces the enemy with a little inward 

 moan, and watches him with a steady and 

 attentive look ; but, if he approach, her 

 note becomes earnest and alarming, and 

 her outcries are redoubled. 



No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed 

 of such a variety of expression and so co- 

 pious a language as common poultry. Take 

 a chicken of four or five days old, and 

 hold it up to a window where there are 

 flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, 

 with little twitterings of complacency ; but 

 if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at once 

 its note becomes harsh and expressive of 

 disapprobation and a sense of danger. 

 When a pullet is ready to lay, she intimates 

 the event by a joyous and easy soft note. 



