10. External characters, etc., of adults.—Notice the flowing tail-feathers, hackles (the long feathers on the neck and loins), comb, and spurs of the cock-birds, and their absence or small size in the hens. What differences are there as regards voice? How does the hen announce that she has laid an egg? Which sex is the more pugnacious?
The recently hatched chick.—The newly-hatched chick is clothed with fine down-feathers (pp. [273] and [277]). It is generally exhausted by its struggles to escape from the shell, but it soon recovers, and is able to run about freely on the second day after hatching. Young birds which, like the chick, are active immediately after hatching, are said to be precocious.
Instinct and education.—From the first, the chick performs certain movements which are obviously instinctive, that is, which have not been acquired by any process of imitation or instruction. Even in the egg, it may be heard chirping soon after it has taken its first breath of air; and the complex activities of walking, running, jumping over obstacles, and, later, preening the feathers and scratching the ground—each of which involves the nicest adjustment of several muscles—are also instinctive. Certain other powers have to be learnt; the hen, for example, lifts and drops before the chick a particle of food which she wishes it to seize, and it soon learns to peck. At first its pecks generally fall a little short of the objects, but presently it becomes very adroit at catching food. “A chick a day or so old will catch a running fly at from the seventh to the twelfth shot.”[19] There does not appear to be much instinctive recognition of the difference between objects which are valuable as food and those which are the reverse. Such discrimination comes only by experience, and to a very young chick a piece of red worsted and a small worm are equally attractive before being seized. In the same way, the nature of water has to be learnt. Chicks peck at drops of water, but do not seem to know the use of water until their beaks are wetted, when they drink instinctively in the usual manner.
The use of the wings is also a matter of instinct, but it is acquired somewhat late, and is assisted by parental encouragement and example even in birds which are noted for their powers of flight. Fowls do not fly much, but chicks may be observed to use their wings as an aid in running or jumping. Prof. Lloyd Morgan[20] quotes an interesting experiment which shows well how deeply the reliance on flight is stamped in bird-nature. “If a chick a day or two old be placed in a basket, held firmly in the hand, and then lowered rapidly through the air, the fledgling will stretch out his little immature wings in such an attitude as would make them break the fall were they fully developed; or will, if he be a little older, flap them with flight-like action, in either case showing an instinctive response.”
Hens and chickens.—Chickens which have been hatched in the natural manner are, from the first, under the control of the hen ([Fig. 194]), and her anxious care for their welfare has always been considered one of the most beautiful examples of the maternal instinct. In their defence her courage is unbounded; should she discover a succulent worm or other dainty morsel, her ordinary complacent cluck changes to a note of invitation, to which the brood at once responds; and at her danger-signal the chickens run to take refuge under her wings, or crouch motionless against the ground. The chirp of a chick also is capable of expressing several states of feeling, such as contentment, pleasure, alarm, and distress. These different notes are not only perfectly intelligible to the hen, but are familiar to anyone who has had experience of poultry.
Fig. 194.—Hen and Chickens.
In the face of these well-known instances of the perfect understanding between the hen and her chickens, it is somewhat surprising to find that chickens, hatched apart from the hen and then placed with the rest of the brood after a few days, at first pay very little attention to the hen, except for their instinctive tendency to nestle into warm places, and do not seem to understand her clucks.
Adult fowls.—The down-feathers are soon shed and replaced by the true plumage, and the chicken gradually takes on the appearance of the adult. A marked difference is generally to be seen between the cocks and hens ([Fig. 195]) of any breed of poultry. The cock is usually provided with flowing tail-feathers, hackles (elongated feathers on the neck and loins), a prominent comb, and “spurs”—features which are either absent or much less perfectly developed in the hens. As great differences exist between the voices of the two sexes, the crow by which the pugnacious male challenges his rivals, and the cackle of the hen when she has laid an egg, being familiar examples.