Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.)

by Robert Paltock

  CHAPTER XXI.

  The Author gets a breed of poultry, and by what means-- Builds them a house--How he managed to keep them in winter

  One day, as I was traversing the woods to view my bird-traps, lookinginto the underwood among the great trees on my right hand, I saw awood-hen (a bird I used to call so, from its resemblance in make to ourEnglish poultry) come out of a little thicket. I know not whether myrustling or what had disturbed it; but I let her pass, and she ran awaybefore me. When she was fairly out of sight, I stepped up, and foundshe had a nest and sixteen eggs there. I exactly marked the place, andtaking away one of the eggs, I broke it, at some distance from the nest,to see how forward they were; and I had no sooner broke the shell butout came a young chicken. I then looked into the nest again, and takingup more of the eggs, I found them all just splintered in the shell, andready for hatching. I had immediately a desire to save them, and bringthem up tame; but I was afraid if I took them away before they werehatched, and a little strengthened under the hen, they would all die; soI let them remain till next day. In the meanwhile I prepared some smallnetting of such a proper size as I conceived would do, and with thisI contrived, by fastening it to stakes which I fixed in the ground,to surround the nest, and me on the outside of it. All the while I wasdoing this, the hen did not stir, so that I thought she had either beenabsent when I came, or had hatched and gone off with the young ones. Asto her being gone I was under no concern; for I had no design tocatch her, but only to confine the chickens within my net if they werehatched. But, however, I went nearer, and peeping in, found she satstill, squeezing herself as flat to the ground as she could. I was intwenty minds whether to take her first, and then catch the chickens, orto let her go off, and then clap upon them; but as I proposed to let hergo, I thought if she would sit still till I had got the chickens, thatwould be the best way; so I softly kneeled down before her, and slidingmy hand under her, I gently drew out two, and put them in a bag I had inmy left hand. I then dipped again and again, taking two every turn; butgoing a fourth time, as I was bringing out my prize, the hen jumped up,flew out, and made such a noise that, though I the minute before saw sixor seven more chicks in a lump where she had sat, and kept my eye uponthem, yet before I could put the last two I had got into my bag, thesewere all gone, and in three hours' search I could not find one of them,though I was sure they could not pass my net, and must be within thecompass of a small room, my toils enclosing no more. After tiring myselfwith looking for them, I marched home with those eight I had got.

  I told Youwarkee what I had done, and how I intended to manage thelittle brood, and, if I could, to bring them up tame. We kept them somedays very warm by the fire, and fed them often, as I had seen my motherdo with her early chickens; and in a fortnight's time they were as stoutand familiar as common poultry. We kept them a long while in the house;and when I fed them I always used them to a particular whistle, whichI also taught my wife, that they might know both us and theirfeeding-time; and in a very short while they would come running, uponthe usual sound, like barn-door fowls to the name of Biddy.

  There happened in this brood to be five hens and three cocks; and theywere now so tame that, having cut their wings, I let them out, when theweather favoured, at my door, where they would pick about in the wood,and get the best part of their subsistence; and having used them toroost in a corner of my ante-chamber, they all came in very regularlyat night and took their places. My hens, at the usual season, laid meabundance of eggs, and hatched me a brood or two each of chickens; sothat now I was at a loss to know what to do with them, they were becomeso numerous. The ante-chamber was no longer a proper receptacle of sucha flock, and therefore I built a little house, at a small distance frommy own, on purpose for their reception and entertainment. I had by thistime cleared a spot of ground on one side of my grotto, by burning upthe timber and underwood which had covered it: this I enclosed, andwithin that enclosure I raised my aviary, and my poultry thrived verywell there, seemed to like their habitation, and grew very fat.

  My wife and I took much delight in visiting and feeding them, and it wasa fine diversion also to my boys; but at the end of summer, when allthe other birds took their annual flight, away went every one of mynew-raised brood with them, and one of my old cocks, the rest of the oldset remaining very quiet with me all the winter. The next summer, whenmy chicks of that year grew up a little, I cut their wings, and by thatmeans preserved all but one, which I suppose was either not cut so closeas the rest, or his wings had grown again. From this time I found, bylong experience, that not two out of a hundred that had once winteredwith me would ever go away, though I did not cut their wings; but all ofthe same season would certainly go off with the wild ones, if they couldany ways make a shift to fly. I afterwards got a breed of blacknecks,which was a name I gave them from the peculiar blackness of their necks,let the rest of their bodies be of what colour they would, as theyare, indeed, of all colours. These birds were as big, or bigger, than aturkey, of a delicious flavour, and were bred from turkey eggs hatchedunder my own wood-hens in great plenty. I was forced to clip these asI did the other young fowl, to keep them, and at length they grew verytame, and would return every night during the dark season. The greatestdifficulty now was to get meat for all these animals in the winter, whenthey would sit on the roost two days together if I did not call and feedthem, which I was sometimes forced to do by lamp-light, or they wouldhave starved in cloudy weather. But I overcame that want of food by anaccidental discovery; for I observed my blacknecks in the woods jumpmany times together at a sort of little round heads, or pods, very dry,which hung plentifully upon a shrub that grew in great abundance there.I cut several of these heads, and carrying them home with me, brokethem, and took out a spoonful or more from each head of small yellowseeds, which giving to my poultry, and finding they greedily devouredthem, I soon laid in a stock for twice my number of mouths, so that theynever after wanted. I tried several times to raise a breed of water-fowlby hatching their eggs under my hens; but not one in ten of the sorts,when hatched, were fit to eat; and those that were would never liveand thrive with me, but go away to the lake, I having no sort of waternearer me; so I dropped my design of water-fowl as impracticable. But bybreeding and feeding my land-fowl so constantly in my farmyard, I neverwanted of that sort at my table, where we eat abundance of them; for mywhole side of the lake in a few years was like a farmyard, so full ofpoultry that I never knew my stock; and upon the usual whistle theywould flock round me from all quarters. I had everything now but cattle,not only for the support, but convenience and pleasure of life; and sohappily should I have fared here, if I had had but a cow and bull, a ramand sheep, that I would not have changed my dominions for the crown ofEngland.