Parental and Early Instincts, 1 1 5 
times only once, and in a mucli lower tone than in 
fowls of other breeds. 
If we may assume that these fowls, in their long, 
semi-independent existence in La Plata, have re- 
verted to the original instincts of the wild Gallus 
bankiva, we can see here how advantageous the 
cackling instinct must be in enabling the hen in 
dense tropical jungles to rejoin the flock after laying 
an egg. If there are egg-eating animals in the 
jungle intelligent enough to discover the meaning of 
such a short, subdued cackling call, they would still 
be unable to find the nest by going back on the 
bird’s scent, since she flies from the nest in the 
first place ; and the wild bird probably flies further 
than the creolla hen of La Plata. The clamorous 
cackling of our fowls would appear then to be 
nothing more than a perversion of a very useful 
instinct. 
