Poultry slang

A couple of nice expressions from the Agatha Christie story first noticed at reference 1.

So 'eu une prise de bec avec la vieille' for 'to have a spat with the old bag'.

And 's'étaient volé dans les plumes' for 'to have a spat with the young tart'.

Idioms which I suppose date from a time when more people kept chickens, or at least knew people who did. And from the English, we can add the version involving the fur flying, a product of our predilection for cats.

I suppose that this translation, dating from 1994, will involve more up-to-date slang & idiom than that Simenon, from forty years earlier, it seeming unlikely that the translator would have attempted to cast his French back 50 years, to the time when the story was written. A whole new crop of words, slang and idioms for me to ponder over and relish. But oddly, I find the newer French harder than the older.

All very timely, as I have just been reading about poultry fights at reference 2. In connection with reading about how people like chickens, back off from fights they are not going to win, at least most of the time. Or, more particularly, tests they are not going to pass. Of which, more in due course.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/bon-dieu-de-bois.html.

Reference 2: Aggressive behavior of chickens: some effects of social and physical environments - J. V. Craig – 1978. To be found at http://www.poultryscience.org/docs/pba/1952-2003/1978/1978%20Craig.pdf. Be aware that vegetarians and vegans may find some of this material offensive.