Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1896 — A Hen’s Nest in a Willow. [ARTICLE]

A Hen’s Nest in a Willow.

It.is pleasant to thirik that the lower animals have - their individual traits,, not less than m®n, and can be n« “queer” as the queerest of specimens. 'Such an instance of originalityis recordeA-fiY Ihe San Francisco Examiner, the subject of the story be-' ing a domestic hen, owned by a Mr. Landgraff of that city. Some weeks ago, as it appears, the hen—a fierce and quarrelsome bodyleft the roost provided for her and her associates, and took up her quarters among the branches of a willow ip her master's back yard. There she soon began getting together materials for a nest,- which she built securely in the crotch of two branches. After a proper time had elapsed— the family, in the meantime, having obr seryed iler strange maiioeuvcrs with much interest —Mr. LandgrafFs man • climbed into the tree in a temporary absence of the hen. There in the nest were about a dozen chickens. While the man was looking a£;theni the mother returned, and, as the Examiner says, “made things interesting” for him. In fact she flew about fiis head so industriously that in his hurried retreat he toppleel over the step ladder and came to the groutfd with painful suddenness. At last advices the mother hen was still feeding her chicks in the nest, while the family and neighbors were waiting to see how she would contrive to get them tothe ground when such a proceeding became necessary.