Think of these words when
you hear the hen call her chickens, and see them all come running to her,
and hiding away under her wings, to be kept in safety from some foe which
_you_ cannot see, but which _she_ knows to be lurking near, or perhaps
hovering above, ready to pounce upon a stray chick and carry it off.
[Illustration: HARK!]
You may often see the Turkeys, Pheasants, Peacocks, and other birds of
this Hen-family, scratching up the gravel; and you know, I daresay, that
grain-eating birds have a little mill inside them called a gizzard, which
grinds their food for them. Birds of prey have no gizzards, because their
food does not need to be ground before they can digest it.
The Wading-birds have long bare legs because they live in marshy places,
and long necks and beaks to catch the small animals upon which they feed.
Snipe and Woodcock have long tapering bills which are alive to the very
points with what are called nerves, so that they may be able to feel for
worms as they dig for them in the soft sand and mud, where they cannot see
them. Two birds of this family, the Stork and the Crane, are mentioned in
the Bible in connection with a wonderful power which God has given to some
birds, by means of which they know when the time is come for them to leave
a country where their food is over and gone, and where the winter is too
cold for them, for a warmer land, where they may find food convenient for
them, and from which they will know right well how to come back again when
spring returns, with its food and foliage.
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