The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-08-04
(CONTINUED.)
LINGO OF THE COOP.
Chicken Talk That Human Beings
Can Quickly Learn to Comprehend.

1t is strange language that human
ears learn readily to comprehend. For
the most part it is instructive. A fuzzy
fodder six hours out of the shell has five
distinct calls The first and loudest 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. The second the hunger note, is as
shriIl, but more plaintive. As soon as
eating begins it changes to a sort of sat
listed chtlcring.
After eating they grow sleepy and cry
to be lowered The note is somewhat
like that of hunger, with peculiar trcn-
olo breaking it in the middle. Very
rarely do the mothers disregard it, though
they may be eager to go foraging over
grass plots or down hedgcrows.
The fifth note, the chir-r of fright or
establishment, is the quaintest of all.
The chicks themselves appear to find
something in it distinctly humorous.
When they are a few days old, if big,
wriggling worm or fat, juicy bug be
thrown to them with their usual food,
they will first draw away from it, chir-r-
ring in concert then, after eying it a
minute, seize upon it and toss it about
with faint, immature chuckling cackles
This chr-r develops at last in the grating
call of warning, at sound Of which from
their mothers even the youngest scatter
and scuttle to cover.
Anything, Il bird, kite, even very
small passing cloud sailing in the sky
overhead, will evoke this warning cry.
Let one hen sound it, and every other
hen will take it up. Often, Oftencr than
not, indeed, the alarm is a false one, but
centuries of hawks have impressed upon
each feathered mind that danger comcth
out of the air." and they govern them
selves accordingly.
Everybody knows how hens cluck to
their broods, but it may be news to many
that though 100 hens may be clucknx
in the same inclosure the voice Of each
will be individual and unmistakablc to
her immediate family. A chick just out
of the nest may not be able to dscrim-
mate, but let him follow for day, and
he is past making mistakes.
Even more wonderful is the hens abb
ity to dfferentiate her brood from all the
rest. With spiteful, i'll tempered fowls
this often leads to pitfu barnyard trag-
edies. An intruder. feeding peacefully
among chicks Of his own size, shape and
COLOR has often been slain with one sin
gle blow of a sharp and angry beak.
A cock, especially gamecock, or one
of Spanish breed, has wonderful varie-
ty Of crows. BY means of them, indeed
he runs the whole gamut Of expression
hope, fear, defiance, triumph, love, hate,
rage, vanity and fine, inetfable con
ccit.
1t is the hens without families, though,
that are the true barnyard gossps. Any
fine day, outside melting time, you may
sec them standing In groups, their heads
close together, clucking and chattering
like so many blackbirds, or else wallow-
Ing in light earth, pecking lightly as they
scratch and wallow, and evidently find.
ing 1t good sport to throw dirt over each
other
A hen, save when setting. will never
wall0w alone. And when setting she Is
not normal. hut ragged, unkcmpt and
very i'll tempered shadow of herself.
Sowing and rrrking Mt whatever comes
near he" W '.' f''..i