DOMESTIC FOWLS. 
215 
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 bray- 
ing of an ass, are not more disgustful. The voice of the goose 
is trumpet-like, and clanking; and one saved the Capitol of 
Rome, as grav^ historians assert : the hiss also of the gander is 
formidable 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 un- 
couth 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 variety of 
expression 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 dis- 
approbation 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 com- 
mand, his amorous phrases and his terms of defiance. But the 
sound by which he is best known is his crowing : by this he has 
