Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/648

630 hidden there. Not finding him, the victor strutted about, too excited to eat, and crowed long and loud over his unprecedented triumph. The other cock was entirely wiped out of existence, and our old fighter, who would crow defiantly in our arms whenever he found himself being carried off the premises, knowing from experience that a set-to was coming, could scarcely credit his senses.

Of the many feelings which human beings and poultry have in common, one is the sense of mortification. On a fine summer morning a group of cockerels, of various ages, were lounging about in the door-yard, when they began a crowing tournament. Some of the smallest and most humble stood contentedly on the ground, but soon one flew upon the carriage-step and crowed from that elevation. He was promptly eclipsed by another, who gave vent to an exultant challenge from the top of the hitching-post. Then the proudest and handsomest of them all walked a few steps with an air of conscious superiority, and flew straight up to the highest bar of the reel of a reaper near by. It was a simple reel of light horizontal bars, not connected with the rake, and revolved very easily. While the young dandy's wings were still flapping in triumph and he had not yet begun to crow, the reel turned under his weight and lowered him swiftly to the ground. Without a sound the crestfallen rooster walked away, too ashamed to look around. We often enjoyed a still more amusing exhibition of this sort on the part of the proudest old cock on the place. He was a very gallant Mormon, and intensely self-conscious when among the hens; but if coaxed off by himself, on a side of the house where no other fowl was in sights he could be easily frightened out of his dignity. A hat thrown at him would send him squawking around the corner of the building, his plumage disarranged, and his whole appearance eloquent of blind terror. We always managed it that he should run straight into a group of hens, and the desperate haste with which he choked down his wild cackling and began to murmur amorous nothings to the ladies of his harem was only less ridiculous than the instant change in his whole appearance, which became that of a pompous and leisurely sultan. He generally overacted a little, making an extra display of his careless gallantry and elegance to show how absurd it was to suspect that he could have been in the least alarmed. A laughable instance of similar mortification in the biggest turkey on the farm was noticed one late autumn day, when this great gobbler and numerous others, much younger and smaller, were eating grass and strutting in the door-yard. Just as the old gobbler spread his tail for a tremendous strut, a young turkey stepped quickly up behind him and pecked sharply at the small spot of skin exposed in the center of the big fellow's