Cock-a-doodle-don't: French cockerel faces legal action to silence dawn chorus

Owner of Maurice, who lives on the ile d'Oli(C)ron, has tried putting egg boxes in the coop but neighbours maintain morning racket is a health risk

Maurice the French cockerel fancies himself as a bit of a crooner. Not quite like his famous namesake Maurice Chevalier, the late French balladeer; but still, each dawn, Maurice does what nature intended cockerels do: he crows.

His owner, Corinne Fesseau, who describes herself as a local singer on the ile d'Oli(C)ron, an island off France's Atlantic coast, is used to Maurice's early wake-up call.