CHANTICLEER. 
157 
sounds scarcely pleasing. He must mount high 
before you can appreciate his merit. I do not re- 
commend any one to keep a caged cock in his study 
for the sake of its music, crow it never so well. 
To return to the ten cockerels ; they did not crow 
very much, and at first I paid little attention to 
them. After a few days I remarked that one 
individual among them was rapidly acquiring 
the clear vigorous strain of the adult bird. Com- 
pared with that fine note which I have described, 
it was still weak and shaky, but in shape it was 
similar, and the change had come while its brethren 
were still uttering brief and harsh screeches as at 
the beginning. Probably, where there is a great 
mixture of varieties, it is the same with the fowl 
as with man in the diversity of the young, different 
ancestral characters appearing in different members 
of the same family. This cockerel was apparently 
the musical member, and promised in a short time 
to rival his neighbour. Having heard that it was 
intended to keep one of the cockerels to be the 
parent of future broods, I began to wonder whether 
the prize in the lottery — to wit, life and a modest 
harem — would fall to this fine singer or not. The 
odds were that his musical career would be cut 
short by an early death, since the ten birds were 
very much alike in other respects, and I felt 
perfectly sure that his superior note would weigh 
