Pawl

“ The fowls are seven and eight months old, but are of mammoth proportions and exquisite plumage—light silvery-grey bodies, approaching white, delicately traced and pencilled with black upon the neck-hackles and tips of the wings and tails. The parent stock of these extraordinary fowls weigh at maturity upwards of twenty-three pounds per pair; while their form, notwithstanding this great weight, is unexceptionable. ”

“ Among the GALLINACEOUS fowls, large numbers contribute to the food delicacies of man. Some, like the turkey, peacock, &c., of considerable size; others, as the pigeon tribe, form smaller tit-bits.
The game birds, the pheasant, partridge, grouse, &c., and the quail, guinea fowl, and jungle fowl, are bagged whenever they can be obtained by the sportsman. ”

“ At the right season too, if fond of wild fowl, we might find pleasure in watching the water black with coots, terns, and duck, or follow behind the sheltering curtains of the decoy the knowing tactics of the little dog who is so valuable an ally to the seductive tame birds. ”

“ Consider the wild fowl that, moved by some mysterious impulse, start on their prodigious migrations from the frozen fens of the Pole and reach at last the shining South and summer seas; the fish that from tropic gulfs seek their spawning-grounds in the cool, bright rivers of the North; the bees that find in the garniture of fields and forests the treasure with which they store their cells; and even the wolf, the lion, and the tiger that are provided with their prey. ”

“ Lifted far above all harm of fowler or impediment of mountain, wild fowl are steadily flying southward. The simple sight of them fills the imagination with pictures. They have all summer long called to each other from the reedy fens and wild oat-fields of the far north. ”

“ Wild fowl, quacking hordes of them, nest in the tulares. Any day's venture will raise from open shallows the great blue heron on his hollow wings. Chill evenings the mallard drakes cry continually from the glassy pools, the bittern's hollow boom rolls along the water paths. ”

“ When the hen walks, she folds her wings close by her side; but when she flies, she spreads them out like a fan. Her body is so heavy that she can fly but a little ways without resting.
2. At night fowls find a place to roost upon a tree, or a piece of timber placed high on purpose for them. Their toes cling around the stick that they stand on, so that they do not fall off. ”

“ Each of us two-legged fowls without feathers embraces all these subdivisions in himself to a greater or less degree, for none of us so much as lays an egg, or incubates a chalk one, but straightway the whole barn-yard shall know it by our cackle or our cluck. ”

“ Brains parboiled in salt and water to harden them are another good substitute for sweetbreads, and offer one more change from the perpetual joint and fowls that are on every table.
Game and Poultry.—A young fowl has large feet, knees, and neck in proportion to its size, and its thighs look white or pinkish. An old one has thin, scraggy legs and purplish tinge on its thighs; the scales look hard and horny, and often there are long hairs on the skin. If the beak is on, it should be soft, and so with the breast bone, which is frequently broken by the poulterer to give the bird a plump appearance. ”

“ But a gun went "boomp!" with that thick, damp sort of sound that smacks of black powder, somewhere down on earth, and a huge "herd" of green plover, alias peewits, which are lapwings, rose, as if blown up by an explosion, to meet them, their thousand wings flickering in the frost-haze like a shower of confetti, and the owl was so disconcerted by the disturbance that he dropped back into the night whence he came, as one who falls into a sea. ”

“ The water-fowl, starting from the sea, flew landward in a flock, fanning the waves with their wings, and uttering that wild and piercing scream which distinguishes them from all other fowl when their haunts are disturbed. ”

“ A heavy paw, a jowl grins stark and bold,
Like swelling ribs the dubious hillocks show;
On what bent back, like wool, does savory grow?
What brute, what titan, to this region cleaves?
The dark is strange ... and yonder, space is clean. ”

“ I have seen males of the game variety attack a number of other larger animals which in any way threatened their charges.
Although our barnyard fowl are almost the only ground birds which have ever been brought to a state of perfect domestication, there are several other species of the same group which have been taught in a measure to adhere to man. Of these perhaps the longest in domestication is the peafowl. This creature, though it has edible, indeed we may say savory flesh, has retained its small place in civilization solely on account of its extraordinary beauty. ”

“ The fowls who peck about the kennels, jerking their bodies hither and thither with a gait which none but town fowls are ever seen to adopt, and which any country cock or hen would be puzzled to understand, are perfectly in keeping with the crazy habitations of their owners. Dingy, ill-plumed, drowsy flutterers, sent, like many of the neighbouring children, to get a livelihood in the streets, they hop from stone to stone in forlorn search of some hidden eatable in the mud, and can scarcely raise a crow among them. ”

“ The delicate texture of the owl’s feathers is very remarkable: these birds remind me of a huge moth. The owls were more showy than the hawks, though it is commonly said that without sunlight there is no colour—as in the case of plants grown in darkness. Yet the hawks are day birds, while the owls fly by night. There came the sound of footsteps; and I retreated, casting one glance backward at the black and white, the blue and brown colours that streaked the wall, while the dull green weasels were in perpetual shadow. ”

“ The Black Warrior has been seen to pounce on a fowl, kill it almost instantly, and afterwards drag it along the ground for several hundred yards, when it would conceal it, and return to feed upon it in security. It was not observed to fall on Hares or Squirrels, but at all times evinced a marked preference for common Poultry, Partridges, and the smaller species of Wild Duck. ”

“ So the miller was afraid and made his paws white. Such is the way of the world!
Now came the rogue back for the third time, knocked and said, "Open the door, dear children; your mother has come home, and has brought something for each of you out of the wood."
The little goslings cried, "Show us your paws first, that we may see whether you are indeed our mother." So he laid his paws on the window-sill, and when the goslings saw that they were white, they believed it was all right, and opened the door; and who should come in but the wolf! ”

“ We have never seen fowls more fully decorated—full tail, abundant furnishing, in hackle almost touching the ground, boots, vulture-hocks, beards, whiskers, and full round Poland crests. Their colour is pure white. ”

“ Besides the animals that I have already particularly mentioned, very good sport could be had with wild fowl of different kinds,—partridges, guinea-fowl, pheasants, and bustard. The large description of the latter, called by the colonists the pouw, is a magnificent bird, and is considered a great delicacy for the table. They have been shot weighing about twenty or thirty pounds. They walk about the newly-burnt grass picking up the fried worms and other animals brought to light by the fire. ”

“ Yes, it was about like that they looked when man took it into his head to tame the wild fowl. In the poultry-yards of those times lived, not the large species of our day, but birds as small in body and as quick on the wing as the partridge. ”

“ It was nothing much, really—only the noise she makes when the giant eagle-owl is angry; but when you are a genet, with a body under two feet long, you may find it rather a bore, if nothing else, to remain cheek by jowl with an angry eagle-owl three feet or so across the wings, with the feline temper of an owl, and armed, owl-like, to the teeth, if I may so put it. ”

“ The cock's showing-off position is that assumed by both sexes when fighting, the wings being dropped, and the tail raised and spread. So with the Common Fowl; two cocks or hens meditating a fight assume the sideway-slanting attitude which is so characteristic of the courting chanticleer, and so well adapted to display the rich hues of back and wing found in the original black-breasted red—the Jungle-fowl colour. ”

“ The buff, white and dominique colors, unheard of in wild species, frizzles with their feathers all awry, the Polish with their deformed skulls and the sooty fowls whose skin and bones are black, are some of the remarkable characters that have sprung up and been preserved under domestication. The varieties of domestic fowl form one of the most profound exhibits of man's control over the laws of inheritance. ”

“ Various kinds of grass-seeds, herbs, berries, and roots, are also eaten, both roasted and raw. Wild fowl are caught in nets made of tules, spread over channels cut through the rushes in places frequented by the fowl, at a sufficient height above the water to allow the birds to swim easily beneath them. The game is gently driven or decoyed under the nets, when at a given signal, a great noise is made, and the terrified fowl, rising suddenly, become hopelessly entangled in the meshes, and fall an easy prey. ”

“ Little chickens throw themselves upon their backs, if one hovers over the poultry yard, from some instinctive notion of defending themselves with their feet, whilst all the hens shriek [103] in concert, and prepare for a desperate defence. But though so great an enemy of young poultry, a singular instance is recorded of a hawk, which not only sat upon the eggs of a common fowl, but even attended with great care to the little ones when they were hatched. ”

“ Fowls, silver-spangled and black, scratched at the earth from habit, fought for the daily grain with a ferocity the summer never saw, stalked spiritless in puffed plumage about the farmyard and collected with subdued clucking upon their roosts in a barn above the farmyard carts as soon as the sun had dipped behind the hills. ”

“ How alive with different sorts of fowls running hither and thither—black, and gray, and speckled; old motherly hens, and pert, lively young ones; while the cocks strutted about and crowed one against another. ”

“ If neglected and abused, they become shy and wild. The most striking peculiarities of the fowl are the fleshy comb and wattles which ornament the head, and the full tail which is usually carried well up and spread perpendicularly. The head appendages vary much in size and form. They are sometimes very small, but never entirely wanting. The carriage of the tail also varies, but except in a few breeds bred especially for low tails it is noticeably high as compared with that of other poultry. Fowls [Pg 33] are readily distinguished from other birds by the voice. ”

“ During this time the bird appears in a somewhat depressed condition, the hen almost always ceases laying. Birds also molt in the spring, to a limited extent. The male at this time takes on the so-called breeding plumage, which is the most beautiful of the year. ”

“ It feeds on plantains and other fruit, and also fowls’ bones. When busily engaged in picking the wing-bone of a fowl, it growls most savagely if disturbed in its repast; which well shows the nature of the beast. ”

“ For the opinion is rooted deep in many minds that to surrender one's wings, to clip one's claws, to put a cork in one's raptorial beak, and masquerade in a commercial barnyard, is to be a very fine fowl indeed. ”

“ Their short fore-paws hang limp before them, while their restless heads and delicate ears turn hither and thither in watchful care against surprise. Notwithstanding their huge paunch, big hind-quarters, and immense tail, there is something graceful and attractive about these creatures, even with all their proverbial awkwardness. ”

“ A white fowl is preferred to any other, in allusion to the words of the prophet, 'Though your sins be as scarlet they shall become white as snow.' A pregnant woman takes three, two hens and one cock, one hen for herself and the other two for the unborn infant—the hen lest it should be a girl, and the cock lest it should be a boy. ”

“ You would think that anybody, however dull, might consider his hands, and guess by the look of them that they must be made to work, and help, and take hold of somebody else's hands! Miserable, useless, flabby paws, those of the non-joiner; that he feeds and dresses himself with, and then hangs to his selfish sides, or puts behind his beastly back! ”

“ These jungle- fowls, which are the domestic poultry in their wild state, are excellent eating, finer and of a better flavour, perhaps, than any game bird, with the exception of the florikin. They are shy, and run very swiftly through the bushes, so that it is difficult to procure them, even where they abound ”

“ The most esteemed of all fowls is the crane, after which come Bewick’s swan, the heron, wild goose, wild duck, common duck, pheasant, quail, pigeon, woodcock, and water-rail,{74} while among the smaller birds are the sparrow, lark, and siskin. ”

“ Certain breeds of sheep bear a whole crowd of horns on their foreheads. As many as five spurs have been seen on both legs of certain Game-fowls. In the Polish fowl the male is ornamented with a topknot of hackles like those on his neck, whilst the female has a top-knot formed of common feathers. In feather- footed pigeons and fowls, feathers like those on the wing arise from the outer side of the legs and toes. ”

“ As the traveler plods onward over its unfrequented tracts, the startled wild-fowl rises with quick splash from the reedy pool, or a few scared gazelles may perhaps be descried bounding over the distant plain. ”

“ It may be urged, in the case of domestic fowls, that from constant disuse, and from clipping and plucking, and other sorts of maltreatment, their wings can hardly be regarded as instruments of flight; we maintain, however, that you may pluck a fowl's wing-joints as bare as a pumpkin, but you will not erase from his memory that he is a fowl, and that his proper sphere is the open air. ”