The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-21

/ food is plentiful and the kind 1T likes
the turkey has a sound of contentment
| varying at the different stages, until
the final word from the patriarch Of the
flock checks the meal instantly, and
away they go. The turkey also has
words or sounds of defiance often COM
bined with the gobble of the male It's
vocabulary includes a ringing note of
eXui alton when he has conquered foe,
and distinct and characteristic expires
sions for envy, want pain, pleasure,
alarm or comfort.
Generally the song of the singing
bird Is merely call for its mate. When
the canary in it's gilded cage sings loud
est it Is usually a call of agony, instead
of pleasure. 1t Is pouring out music
from it's throat in the mad endeavor to
call it's absent mate to its side. Cor
rectly interpreted, it is an appeal for
freedom, an appeal for the happiness Of
old when, with its mate, it wandered
free in the empire Of the, air. The male
singer has love song which 1t pours
out in the prodigality of it's happiness
when the love dream Is young. 1t has
also low, soothing song when 1t
sings to it's mate while she is nesting.
The bird songs of the fall are for pleas
ure only Few sing much beyond the
courtship and breeding season. The
notes of the songbird, therefore, are
more or less those of want, of pleasure
and OF love.
lin my Investigations ] have found
that the hen bird of the domestic chick
~, hoe ppy "a md of N Or
as almost any member of the feathered
tribe She is a much more fluent talker
than the male, her lord ana master. and
her cabulary discounts anything thus
for discovered in this particular field
of investigation. The eackle of the hen
Is used, for instance. for three distinct
purposes, and she has as many distinct
i've notes. She uses in seeking the nest
or when calling her mate one soft note;
another, of triumphant rejoicing as she
either flies from the nest to do it. Like
wise she has three songs Of distinct
types, the love song a happy response
to the eager counting of her mate; the
song of Indifference. when idly hunting
for food. indicating no certain purpose
in her movements: the lullaby song,
low, grooming soothing note, hushing
the young chickens to sleep.
II have frequently experimental with
the lullaby song by initiating the low,
soothing notes. and little chickens held
in the hands and thus sung to in the
language they understand will quickly
fall asleep. The mother hen has also
various notes for warning her brood.
She uses a harsh, sharp combination
of cackle and cry to warn them of a
snake or an unknown object on the
ground, while to notify them that she
considers certain food unfit for them
she utili2es variation of the slumber
song. A certain sharp, prolonged note
lis used by the hen to keep strange
chickens from her brood, and how well
the little fluffy mites understand the
mother tongue may be noted by obeerv-
ing in any poultry yard how twenty
hens with as many broods, nearly all
of the same age, will keep every mem
Der Of their particular families in line,
There is no mixing the babies In the
chicken world Every little chick knows
its protectors call and the other hen
knows the individual progeny for which
she holds herself responsible.
There is, too, among the birds, 81
lent language. 1t Is used almost wholly
by the males Let two cock birds,
strangers to each other, meet on neu-
trail territory. Is it to be war Of peace?
words or loss Of time. One flaps his
-----~ ~--~ -