The voice of the goose is trumpet-like, and clanking;
and once saved the Capitol at Rome, as grave historians assert: the
hiss also of the gander is formidable and full of menace, and '
protective of his young. ' Among ducks the sexual distinction of
voice is remarkable; for, while the quack of the female is loud and
sonorous, the voice of the drake is inward and harsh and feeble,
and scarce discernible. The cock turkey struts and gobbles to his
mistress in a most uncouth manner; he hath also a pert and petulant
note when he attacks his adversary. When a hen turkey leads forth
her young brood she keeps a watchful eye: and if a bird of prey
appear, though ever so high in the air, the careful mother
announces the enemy with a little inward moan, and watches him
with a steady and attentive look; but if he approach, her note
becomes earnest and alarming, and her outcries are redoubled.
No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of
expression and so copious a language as common poultry. Take a
chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window where
there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, with little
twitterings of complacency; but if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at
once its note becomes harsh, and expressive of disapprobation and
a sense of danger.
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