Chapter I: Front Matter

OUR HUMBLE HELPERS

FAMILIAR TALKS ON
THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS

BY
JEAN-HENRI FABRE
Author of “The Story Book of Science,”
“Social Life in the Insect World,” etc.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY
FLORENCE CONSTABLE BICKNELL

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1918

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

In its purpose and style this book closely resembles the same author’s “Story-Book of Science,” and it belongs to the same series. To many readers, however, it is likely to prove even more interesting than its predecessor, inasmuch as the domestic animals are more familiar and hence more interesting to many persons than the ant, the spider, the plant-louse, the caterpillar, and other examples of insect life discussed in the earlier work. Particularly at this time, when not a few of us, both old and young, are turning our attention, however inexpertly, to farming in a small way, in order to make the most of nature’s food resources within our reach, we like to become a little better acquainted with the denizens of the farmyard and the four-footed helpers in the field. The pig and the hen, the goose and the turkey, the ox and the ass, the horse and the cow, the sheep and its canine keeper—these and many other old friends of ours in the animal kingdom are made to enliven the following pages by the genius and skill of him who knew and loved them all as few naturalists have known and loved their dumb fellow-creatures.

Faithfulness to the spirit of the French original has throughout been striven for rather than a blind subservience to the letter. May the attempt to render at least a little of the charm of that original be found not wholly unsuccessful!

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I The Cock and the Hen 3
II The Gizzard 9
III The Chief Kinds of Poultry 16
IV The Egg 21
V The Egg (Continued) 27
VI Incubation 36
VII The Young Chickens 47
VIII The Poulard 54
IX The Turkey 61
X The Guinea-Fowl 73
XI The Palmipedes 84
XII The Duck 94
XIII The Wild Goose 108
XIV The Domestic Goose 120
XV The Pigeon 130
XVI A Story from Audubon 141
XVII A Supposition 150
XVIII A Fragment of History 159
XIX The Jackal 173
XX The Chief Breeds of Dogs 183
XXI The Chief Breeds of Dogs (Continued) 193
XXII The Various Uses of Dogs 204
XXIII The Eskimo Dog 213
XXIV The Dog of Montargis 221
XXV Hydrophobia 227
XXVI The Cat 239
XXVII Sheep 255
XXVIII The Goat 271
XXIX The Ox 279
XXX Milk 293
XXXI Butter 298
XXXII Rennet 303
XXXIII Cheese 308
XXXIV The Pig 316
XXXV Pig’s Measles 329
XXXVI A Persistent Parasite 334
XXXVII The Horse 343
XXXVIII The Horse (Continued) 354
XXXIX The Ass 362

OUR HUMBLE HELPERS