Over at the DG, my colleague Margaret Hartley writes about chickens, and their quirky antics.

Here's an excerpt:

"Four chickens huddled together, braced themselves, then marched out as a pack, tails up, heads poking forward with each step of their orange legs. A stray hen scurried out from another corner of the yard, peeking warily over her shoulder, and the four biddies reacted as one: squawking, clucking, shushing and finally herding and prodding the stray hen back into the group.

It could have been our own backyard.

Instead it was on stage, at a rehearsal of my daughter’s ballet company’s production of 'Carnival of the Animals.'

'That chicken dance is spot on,' I told my daughter who, for the record, is a swan.

Observers — and impersonators — of animals look for the telltale movements or postures that differentiate a chicken from, say, a duck. Or a swan."

Click here to read the whole thing.