NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
167 
ducks, and the like ; their perpetual clamour prevents them from 
dispersing and losing their companions. 
In so extensive a subject^, sketches and outlines are as much as can be 
expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all the infinite variety 
of the feathered nation. We shall therefore confine the remainder of 
this letter to the few domestic fowls of our yards, which are most 
known, and therefore best understood. And first the peacock, with his 
gorgeous train, demands our attention ; but, like most of the gaudy 
birds, his notes are grating and shocking to the ear : the yelling of cats, 
and the braying of an ass, are not more disgustful. The voice of the 
goose is trumpet-like, and clanking; and once saved the Capitol at 
Rome, as grave historians assert : the hiss, also, of the gander, is for- 
midable and full of menace, and " protective of his young." Among 
ducks the sexual distinction of voice is remarkable ; for, while the 
quack of the female is loud and sonorous, the voice of the drake is 
inward and harsh^ and feeble, and scarce discernible. The cock turkey 
struts and gobbles to his mistress in a most uncouth manner ; he 
hath also a pert and petulant note when he attacks his adversary. 
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 varietj^ of expres- 
sion and so copious 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. Of all the occurrences of their life that of laying seems 
to be the most important ; for no sooner has a hen disburdened herself, 
than she rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, which the cock and 
the rest of his mistresses immediately adopt. The tumult is not 
confined to the family concerned, but catches from yard to yard, and 
spreads to every homestead within hearing, till at last the whole village 
is in an uproar. As soon as a hen becomes a mother her new relation 
demands a new language ; she then runs clocking and screaming about, 
and seems agitated as if possessed. The father of the flock has also a 
considerable vocabulary ; if he finds food, he calls a favourite concubine 
to partake ; and if a bird of prey passes over, with a warning voice he 
bids his family beware. The gallant chanticleer has, at command, his 
amorous phrases and his terms of defiance. But the sound by which 
he is best known is his crowing : by this he has been distinguished in 
all ages as the countryman's clock or larum, as the watchman that 
proclaims the divisions of the night. Thus the poet elegantly styles 
him : 
" the crested cock, whose clarion sounds 
The silent hours. " 
