| 词源 |
pecking order. The famous study made by biologist W. C. Allee in the 1920s establishes that the pecking order among hens has a definite prestige pattern: hens, like many humans, freely peck at other hens below their rank and submit to peck- ing from those above them. Hens rarely peck at roosters in the barnyard, where the rooster is cock of the walk, but it was widely believed in the 17th century that they often pulled feath- ers from roosters below them in the pecking order. See henpecked. |