Country Life
By IAN NIALL
FURTHER to my recent remarks on laying-away hens' a correspondent writes to comment .on the fact that a domestic fowl is said to have nested in a .tree. I can assure him that although the domestic chicken is a descendant of the jungle fowl and is a tarn of the ground, this doesn't prevent it from havulg a liking for trees, and many a distracted poult,rY,: keeper can testify to the fact that the chicken's lag" roost is far from uncommon. Roosting and nestIng in a safe place is a natural instinct. How does the wild duck bring down her young when, as she has been known to do on occasions, she picks a will°, or even a poplar in which to incubate her eggs' A moorhen will nest high in a thorn tree and Yell moorhens are hardly hatched before they are ea' It is almost inevitable that they tumble out of the high nest, but the small birds fall relaxed. So,. In many instances, does a child. I remember once seal a tiny tot take a ten-foot jump from a sea wal on to shingle. Before I could get to her she Pt up and toddled away, apparently quite unharmed. This sort of thing must happen when the nestlings of some sea birds are thrust over the precipice ,n)1 their parents. How did the hen I mentioned bring her young to the ground? I think she pushed the.112 over as naturally. as she chose the nest in whle" to lay her eggs.
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