The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-14
bow Chickens calk.
BY MARTHA M'CULLOCH WILL
JAMS.

1t is in a language that human ears
learn readily to comprehend. For the
most part it is instructive. a fuzzy
toddler six hours out of the shell, mas
five distinct calls. The first and loud
est of them is the lost note, uttered
when he loses sight of his mother, or
finds himself out in the cold. 1t is
loud and very shrill: ''Pee-ee-Op, Pee
ee-ee-opi Pee-eee-op" The second, the
hunger note, is shrill, but more PLAIN
tive, running somewhat thus: reap
Yeeap, Yee-eeapr' AS soon as eat
ing begins it changes 10 a sort of sat
isfied chittering: 'Wit-w1t! Wlt-wit.
-wit-weetr'
After eating they grow sleepy. and
cry to be lowered. The note is some
what like that of hunger, with a
peculiar tremolo breaking 1T in the
middle: "Yee-pi-leepl. Yee-pl-lee-pl.
does not fully represent it, but comes
as near the the limitations OF VoWels
and consonants admit. Very rarely
do the mothers disregard it, though
they may be eager to go foraging over
grass plots or down hedgeroWs. Some
times. if they themselves are sui
hungry, they run about at great rate
clucking StrenuouSly. In that case the
sleepy chicks huddle and tumble about
their feet, and the most agile among
them fly upon the mothers back, Whlie
she is still in motion. That generaliS
fetches her to terms, though OCCASION
ally she shakes down the saucy felloW'
and pecks him roundly for his impertl-
hence.
The fifth note, the chir-r-r of fright
or astonishment, is the quaintest OF
all. The chicks themselves appear 10
find something in it distinctly humor-
Gus. When they are few DAYS olu,
if a big wrigglins worm, or rat Juicy
bug, be thrown to them with tnei l
usual food, they will first draw away
form it. chir-r-ing in concert, thell
after cycling it a minute, seize upon H.
and toss it about with faint immature
chuckling cackles. This chlr-r oeNel-
OPS at last in the grating call OF warn
ing. at sound of which from thelr
mothers. even the youngest scatter
and scutter to cover.
ANYTHING, a bird, kite, even a very
small passing cloud. sailing in the SKY
overhead, will evoke TINS Waliu Ie, ~ LIN
Let one hen sound it, every mother wiz
take il up. Often, oftener than not
indeed the alarm is a false one, Out
centuries of hawks have impressed
unon each feathered mind that uan-
ger cometh out of the air and theV
govern themselves accordingly.
Everybody know how hens cluch "
their broods, but it may De news 10
many that though a hundred hens may
be clucking in the same enclosure, lle
voice of each will be individual ana I'M
mistakable to her immediate family. A
chick lust out of the nest may not De
able to discriminate, but let him IolloW
for a day, and he is past making ms
takes. Even more wonderful Is the
hens ability TO differentiate her brood
from all the rest. With spiteful, III
tempered fowls this often leads to PIT
ifui barnyard tragedies. An lntruuei
feeding peacefully among chicks OF ms
own size. shape and color, has often
been slain with one single ploW OIL
sharp and angry beak
Upon finding food a hen calls her
chicks somewhat thus: 'Co-cu-co-cu-
cu-cu-ee," The cock calls his wives
about him to share in some DAINTY
with nearly the same notes. but deeper
and more resonant in the beginning,
and returning at the end into a hlgh-
pitched treble. There is some
thing clownish in his cackle. He cackieS
only to express a panied astonlshment
or else by way of chorusing the hens,
with whom cackling. is a favorite di-
version. quite independent OF the mat
ter of egg-laying-
A cock, especially a game COCK, OF
one of Spanish breed, has wonderful
variety of crows. BY means OF them,
indeed. he runs the whole gamut OF eX-
pression-hope. fear, defiance, triumph,
love hate, rage, vanity ana me IN
effable conceit. He has beside sort
of wheedling scowl. for use against
such of his wives as are especially try
ing. He sides up to the culprit or calls
her to him with a make-believe worm,
and when she is close at hand gives her
a sharp peck, at the same time raising
the upper feathers of his crest, and ut
tering the wheedling scowl. The make
believe worm is a very common trick
Young cocks often resort TO 1t in the
effort to draw to themselves the mates
of the cock of the walk
1t is the hens without families.
though, who are the true barnyard gos-
sips. Any fine day, outside moulting
time. you may see them standing in
groups. their heads close together,
chucklng and chattering like so many
blackbirds. or else wallowing in light
earth. pecking lightly as they scratch
and wallow, and evidently finding it
good sport to throw dust we'll over each
other. A hen, save when sitting, will
never wallow alone. And when sitting
she is not normal, but a ragged, ufl-
kempt and very ill-tempered shadow of
herself, scowling and pecking at what
ever comes near her.
rUIIReH eERUlcEe