26 
NATURE NOTES 
continued efforts to attract their attention, and to compare his 
generous and self-denying action with the selfish greediness of 
the hens. This vocal summons is aided by much expressive 
gesticulation. The bird successively holds the tit-bit in his 
beak, lays it upon the ground, picks it up again, and again puts 
it down in a fresh place. He seems much gratified at seeing 
his wives race up fighting and scrambling for the coveted 
delicacy. 
Then, again, there is the loud challenging crow of the cock, 
varying in pitch and volume according to the size of the 
performer, and ranging from the deep bass of the Cochin or 
Brahma to the screaming treble of the warlike little game 
bantam. After each crow he seems to listen intently for a 
reply. While watching the lofty bearing of the master cock of 
the yard, one is often irresistibly reminded of the saying, “ There 
is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous.” As he struts 
in lordly fashion among his inferiors, with head and tail so erect 
as almost to meet, he utters a low, subdued note which one 
can hardly interpret otherwise than as an approving chuckle at 
his own majestic appearance. There is one remarkable sound 
made by the domestic cock which I have never heard described 
or accounted for. He will stand perfectly still for a considerable 
time, with an anxious expression on his face, as though he had 
something on his mind. Suddenly he will utter a very loud and 
peculiar cry, repeated rapidly two or three times, and then 
at once resume his usual demeanour. 
G. T. Rope. 
VOICES OF THE TWILIGHT. 
HE thrushes are chorusing their evensong as I sit on 
a fence by a sedgy pool, with my faithful spaniel at my 
feet, and listen to the rounds of eventide. The par- 
tridges are calling their mates and the tawny owl’s 
hoot blends with the “ pee-weep ” of tlie green plover and the 
raucous note of the carrion crow. As the dusk begins to fall 
the shadowy outline of a fox comes down a furrow and a par- 
tridge leaps up in alarm and settles again close to us. “ Jock ” 
at command moves on both, but the fox stops to listen some 
200 yards ahead before drawing the gorse patch on his way 
home to the earth, where later on we shall see the cubs playing 
like kittens on some sunny afternoon. Now comes the chuckling 
note of approaching wild duck, and with a swish of wings they 
come right over us and circle round the pool like great Hying 
soda-water bottles, till the old mallard espies a movement, and 
they shoot upwards out of sight at his warning (juacks. Others 
fly past, though we cannot see them, and the “ wheeyouing ” 
notes of the wigeon echo from the gloom as they fly low to join 
