What do you mean by 'a sec or two' and 're the fowls'?"
Bronsky gave a thin, respectful laugh.
"Valentin Petrovich corrects it."
"And who might Valentin Petrovich be?"
"The head of the literary section."
"Oh, well.
I'm not a philologist anyway.
Now, leaving aside that Petrovich of yours, what exactly do you wish to know about fowls?"
"Everything you can tell me, Professor."
At this point Bronsky armed himself with a pencil.
Sparks of triumph flashed in Persikov's eyes.
"You shouldn't have come to me, I don't specialise in our feathered friends.
You should have gone to Yemelian Ivano-vich Portugalov, at the First University.
I personally know very little..."
Bronsky smiled ecstatically to indicate that he had got the Professor's joke.
"Joke-very little!" he scribbled in his pad.
"But if it interests you, of course.
Hens, or cristates are a variety of bird from the fowl species.
From the pheasant family," Persikov began in a loud voice, looking not at Bronsky, but into the far distance where he could see an audience of thousands. "From the pheasant family ...phasianus.
They are birds with a fleshy skin crown and two gills under the lower jaw... Hm, although some have only one in the middle under the beak. Now, what else.
Their wings are short and rounded.
The tail is of medium length, somewhat stepped and even, I would say, roof-shaped. The middle feathers are bent in the form of a sickle... Pankrat... bring me model No. 705 from the model room, the cross-section of the domestic cock. You don't need it?
Don't bring the model, Pankrat. I repeat, I am not a specialist. Go to Portugalov.
Now let me see, I personally know of six types of wild fowl... Hm, Portugalov knows more... In India and on the Malaysian archipelago.
For example, the Bankiva fowl, or Callus bankiva. It is found in the foothills of the Himalayas, throughout India, in Assam and Burma... The Java fowl, or Gallus varius on Lombok, Sumbawa and Flores.
And on the island of Java there is the splendid Gallus eneus fowl. In south-east India I can recommend the very beautiful Sonneratii. I'll show you a drawing of it later.
As for Ceylon, here we have the Stanley fowl, which is not found anywhere else."
Bronsky sat there, eyes popping, and scribbled madly.
"Anything else I can tell you?"
"I'd like to hear something about fowl diseases," Alfred whispered quietly.
"Hm, it's not my subject. You should ask Portugalov. But anyway... Well, there are tape-worms, leeches, the itchmite, bird-mite, chicken louse, Eomenacanthus stramineus, fleas, chicken cholera, inflammation of the mucous membrane, Pneumonomicosis, tuberculosis, chicken mange... all sorts of things (Persikov's eyes flashed.) ... poisoning, tumours, rickets, jaundice, rheumatism, Ahorion Schonlein's fungus - that's a most interesting disease. Small spots like mould appear on the crown..."
Bronsky wiped the sweat off his brow with a coloured handkerchief.
"And what in your opinion, Professor, is the cause of the present catastrophe?"
"What catastrophe?"
"Haven't you read about it, Professor?" exclaimed Bronsky in surprise, pulling a crumpled page of Izvestia out of his briefcase.
"I don't read newspapers," Persikov pouted.
"But why not, Professor?" Alfred asked gently.
"Because they write such rubbish," Persikov replied, without thinking.
"But surely not, Professor?" Bronsky whispered softly, unfolding the page.
"What's the matter?" asked Persikov, even rising to his feet.
Bronsky's eyes were flashing now.
He pointed a sharp painted finger at an incredibly large headline which ran right across the whole page:
"Chicken plague in the Republic".
"What?" asked Persikov, pushing his spectacles onto his forehead...
CHAPTER VI.
Moscow. June 1928
The city shone, the lights danced, going out and blazing on.
In Theatre Square the white lamps of buses mingled with the green lights of trams; above the former Muir and Merilees, its tenth floor added later, skipped a multi-coloured electrical woman, tossing out letter by letter the multicoloured words:
"Workers' Credit".
A crowd thronged and murmured in the small garden opposite the Bolshoi Theatre, where a multicoloured fountain played at night.