This was taken in my back yard, with son (son!) and the chickens. But it might be China....

I know this... this *sound*. I've referred to it before as the Rodan shriek.

I didn't know it could be quite *so* deadly.

But Reuters reports here from Nanjing about a 4-year-old who kills with his screams.

Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in eastern China — and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a 4-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog, state media reported Wednesday.

“One neighbor told police that he had heard the boy’s crying that afternoon and another villager confirmed the boy screaming by the henhouse window,” the newspaper said.

A court ruled the boy’s screaming was “the only unexpected abnormal sound” and that 443 chickens trampled each other to death in fear.

I... I know the feeling. He still does it. The screaming without words.

And now I'm terribly, terribly afraid.