The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-08

only OF scientists, but Of the average
layman- What is the cause OF the hen's
intellectual retrogression?
Others may have a more plausible
theory than my own, but l submit here
this idea for what it is worth. OF course
there is no question regarding the exist
ence of the trouble. The hen does not
shine socially as she once did She is
moody and taciturn, and her memcry
Is deficient. You let her get into an in
closure through hole, and she will re-
main there and die before she can re-
member where that hole Is or use it to
get out through.
l noticed more idiotic hens in tho
past two years than ever before. Brain
troubles are more noticeable. More hens
are noticed who cackle when they have
not laid an egg or who forget TO cackle
when they have done So. More hens
show signs Of hypochondria The glad
and careless laugh IS no longer heard.
l see more pale, languid hens-hens
that are still young, yet with an air of
age and senility, prematurely aged and
tough.
am led to believe that there is a
cause for this, and simple one
a year ago l bought IS plain pullets
Of 2 man who lives at Hogg's Neck, IS
miles away. He delivered them on the
following day, he and his son bringing
them on foot in four punches of four
each, with legs tied together like par
Gel Of spring onions. For IS miles they
had come, with their heads hanging
down and the blood rushing 10 their
brains.
As a result, these hens are noticeable
for their impaired intellects. 1t is al
most pathetic to watch them dawdling
their lives away or cacbling vacantly
to each other, while the rising genera
tion seems even more silly than the old
er ones.
Where is the leading hen of the fu-
ture TO come from? Where shall we go
to find the typical American hen? These
questions must some day be met square
~, and now is the time. / ask my fell
low ornithoiogists to join with me IN
rescuing from destruction the threaten
ed intellects of our rising hens.
So intellectually deficient has the
American hen become recently that she
is today the dry nurse for the turkey,
the duck, the guinea hen and the goose. i,
What other fowl would quietly and even
cheerfully hatch and rear the castof
children of other barnyard fowls? What
warm blOOded mammal is so far lost to
decent pride Is TO become a founding
asylum fer the gander, the type and
symbol of cheerful idiocy?
What other fowl would without COM
plant forego her vacations in order TO
sit for six weeks on child's tin dog?
What other class or genus of the brute
creation, aside from congress, is con-
tent to sit its life away without tangi-
bic result? What mammal, aside from
the hen, will sit all summer gazing into
space and then come forth with a ra-
diant smile and with nothing to show
for it but hot doorknob or an amend
ment:
Probably one of the most exhaustive
works on ornithology, and one that has
beguiled many weary hour for me
when the long. long summer days hung
warm and pulseless on the Blue Ridge
is small volume, or book
let, by Professor Parker, entitled 1.-The
Osteology of Bal@nioeps.
1t has wiped away the collected cob
webs of centuries, and for one | can
say that all to me now is
clear. Balaniceps have no secrets now
from me. AL one calm summer night
a few weeks ago, while large owl in
the porte cochere of our country house
sang solemn song, and a big beetle
three-fourths of a pound oc-
bumped his broad forehead
against my own, | read of the life and
times of the Bal@niceps.
Professor Parker is also the writer Of
I'The Osteology OF Gallinaceous Birds
and Tinamous. This is not so excit-
ng, however, as the other work just
mentioned. But if you want something
% take with you to the seaShore there's
lothing better than Professor Parker's
ittle work entitled ''On the Skull of
he Hgithognsthous Birds" 1t takes
4 line of treatment similar to my trea- ,