El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-13
HOW CHICKENS TALK.
A Language You Can Understand II
You VIII Observe ClOsely.

| Chickens talk in language that
| human ears learn readily to compre-
bend. For the most part it is instinc-
| tive. A fuzzy toddler 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 or
his mother or finds himself out IN the
| cold. 1t is loud and very shr1ll: zee
ee-op, -ee-op! Pee-eee-op! Ihe
second, the hungry notes, is as shrlll,
| but more plaintive, running somewhat
thus: "Yeap! Yeeap! Yee-eeap!' AS
soon as eating begins it changes to
sort of satisfied chittering: "Wit-Wlt!
Wit-wit! Wit-wit-weetv'
After eating they grow sleepy anu
cry to be lowered. The note is some
what like that of hunger, with a pc
culiar tremolo breaking it in the mid
die. "Yee-pl-lee-pl! Yee-pl-lee-pl!' does
not fully represent it, but comes as
near as 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. Sometimes,
if they themselves are still hungry,
they run about at a great rate, cluck-
ing strenuously. In that case the sleepy
chicks huddle and tumble about their
feet, and the most agile among them
fly upon the mothers back while she
is still in motion. That generally
fetches her to terms, though occasion
ally she shakes down the Saucy fellow
and pecks him roundly for his i'm
pertinence.
The fifth note, chir-r-r of fright or as
tonishment. is the quaintest of all. The
chicks themselves appear to find some
thing in it distinctly humorous. When
they are few days old, if a big wrig
Cling worm or a fat juicy bug be
thrown to them with their usual food,
they will first draw away from it,
chir-r-ing in concert; then, after eying
1t minute, seize upon it and toss it
about with faint, immature chuckling
cackles. This chir-r develops at last
in the grating call of warning. at the
sound of which from their mothers
even the youngest scatter and scutter
to cover.
Anything, a bird, kite even a very
overhead, will evoke this warning cry.
Let one hen sound it, every other will
take it up. Often, oftener than not,
indeed, the alarm is a false one, but
centuries of hawks have impressed
upon each feathered mind that dan
ger cometh out of the air. and they
govern themselves accordingly.
Everybody knows how hens cluck to
their broods, but it may be news to
many that, though a hundred hens may
be clucking in the same Enclosure,
the voice of each will be individual
and unmistakable to her Immediate
family. A chick just out of the nest
may not be able to discriminate, but
let him follow for a day and he is past
making mistakes. Even more wonder
full is the hens ability to differentiate
her brood from all the rest. With
spiteful, ill tempered fowls this often
leads to pitiful barnyard tragedies. An
intruder, feeding peacefully among
chicks of his own size, shape and color,
has often been slain with one single
blow of sharp and angry beak.
Upon finding food a hen calls her
chicks somewhat thus: 'Co-cu-co-cu-
cu-cu-eer' The cock calls his wives
with nearly the same notes, but deep
er and more resonant in the beginning
and running at the end into a high
pitched treble. There is something
clownish in his cackle. He cackles
only to express panied establishment
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 gamecock or
one Of Spanish breed, has a wonderful
variety Of crows. By means of them
indeed he runs the whole gamut of
expression-hope, fear, defiance, love,
hate, rage, vanity and a fine ineffable
conceit. lie has besides a sort of
wheedling scowl for use against such
of his wives as are especially trying.
He sidles 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 wheedHng scow1. The
make believe worm is very common
trick. Young cocks often resort to it
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 gossips.
Any fine day, outside molting time,
you may see them standing In groups,
their heads close together, chuckling
md chattering like SO many blackbirds,
or else wallowing in light earth, peck
ing 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 |