WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
or whatever it might be, according to where 
Mrs. Connell had obtained the antecedent egg ; 
but the " Chickery-Cock " had been hatched 
from a home-laid setting, and he was the pride 
of Mrs. ConneH's heart. He derived his name 
from his fine bronze hackles and wings, 
speckled, or as Mrs. Connell expressed it 
" chickered " with black a legacy from some 
far-off gamecock ancestor perhaps, from whom 
he had also inherited his consummate pride in 
himself, and a latent craving for battle. He 
ruled over his admiring train of hens with 
tyrannical rigour, and allowed nothing from 
a rat to a man to approach his hen-house 
unchallenged. Hence, when he heard that 
insolent note in the wood behind his yard, he 
shook his fine "chickered" hackles and strode 
out to punish the trespasser. 
Creaban forgot all about the Yellow Pullet in 
the brambles, and ran to meet the newcomer 
half-way. Although he had lived with scores 
of his own kind in the woods all the summer, 
he had never wished to fight with any of them, 
but now, as the Cock drew in his head and 
crumpled his right claw against his breast, 
Creaban suddenly felt an overwhelming hatred 
of him. He began to trip across the clearing 
with little niggling steps. The hens scattered 
to right and left as he came, but he took no 
