REFINEMENT IN BIRDS.
rTo THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sra,—What my friend the Bishop of Bedford calls "the delight- ful gallantry" of the barn-door cock towards his hens is too, familiar to warrant particular attention. If I were to tell of the care with which on one occasion I saw the "paterfamilias' of my own poultry-yard break the shells of a basketful of snails- and present the unctuous morsels one by one to his wives, with the utmost courtesy, I should he only mentioning what the
of others could easily parallel.
The following instance of the same refined attention is, how- ever, I think, sufficiently unusual to deserve record. When I was a boy there were two farmyards attached to my father's house—one near, the other more distant. The fowls had not thriven very well in the near farmyard, and it was thought better to remove them to the other. This was done at night,. after the cock and his seraglio had gone to roost. The next day we boys, anxious to know how the fowls were getting on in their new quarters, accompanied our father to the place to which they had been removed. The hens were busily scratching on the dunghill, as happy as ever, but the cock was nowhere to be seen. On asking the farming-man where he was, he opened the ben-house door with a queer grin, and there we saw our old friend busily employed in making nests for his hens to lay in. Though more than half a century has passed, I can see him now in the dusky background of the shed, actively arranging the- straw with his feet, and remonstrating against our intrusion on his pions work by a surprised and querulous chuckle. I hope. his numerous wives were properly grateful for this self-sacrificing labour.—I am, sir, &c.,
The Precentory, Lincoln, April 22nd. EDMUND "VENABLES.
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