CURIOSITY IN HENS
Hens often remind me of hard-faced old village gossips. They have the same ruthless- ness. A friend was telling me that when he kept hens he had seen them stalking mice that attempted to shelter under feeding troughs, and regularly discovered the remains of mice they had slaughtered. I have seen mice after scraps of food in a henrun, but have never been able to witness the reaction of the fowls. I can imagine that they would, given the chance, administer a death blow to a mouse, for, like all birds that take worms, slugs and insects, they are carnivorous. They also have a beady-eyed curiosity that, when one strikes at another and draws blood, can lead to brutal murder. As an illustration, I can remember once lying on my back on the grass on a summer's day when a pet hen belonging to an aunt came to investigate my prone figure. It peered at me for fully a minute and then, with quite startling suddenness, made a most determined stab with the object of removing one of my eyes. I still shiver when 1 think of it.
Previous page
