An occasional savagery, which is difficult to explain, now and
again overcomes even the domestic hen. One of the most brutal spectacles within my recollection concerns some farmyard hens feeding in the neighbourhood of a corn rick that was being threshed. Every fugitive mouse that escaped the boys and the farmer's terrier was killed by the hens. In most cases a single peck was enough to kill the mouse, but the struggle of the duck to swallow the sparrow was mild and brief compared with the hen's persistence in eating the mice. Such examples indicate the undoubted fact that many animals are liable to perversions and eccentric tastes. We cannot say that such and such an animal is as a species or genus, harmful or harmless. Odd members break away from the custom of the tribes and do not follow the instinct that the professors regard as uniform. There is a deal of individuality in both birds and mammals. You cannot anticipate their actions as you can the behaviour of most, though by no means
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