20 Mr. F. E. 0. Mors on the BreeJ'uig of the 



the eggs, but late at niglit I looked again and found the 

 eggs in the same position and also heai'd the tiny poeping 

 sound in the incubator. I then went to sleep with the 

 thought that the little birds were too weak to peck their way 

 ont of the shells and would surely die during the course of 

 the night. Early next morning 1 decided to take the fowl 

 chicks out of the incubator, and I opened the machine and 

 took out first the box with the three little eggs and brought 

 it to my ears to listen — no sound — surely all dead ! I went 

 out to the garden with the eggs in the box to obtain better 

 light to examine the pecking of the eggs. To my surpi'ise 

 I noticed the sun shining through empty shells, of which the 

 toj) parts were still nicely in position, being held there by a 

 small piece of skin attached to the egg-shell which worked 

 like hinges. 



Anxious to see what kind of birds were hatched out of 

 tliese eggs, I went again to the incubator and took ont the 

 fovvl chicks, and found between them three nice little chicks 

 of scarcely an inch in height oE a brownish colour on the 

 back ; this ground-colour was divided into three portions by 

 two light brown s'ripes running from the eyes to the tail. 

 I put some sand in a box and jtlaced therein my three little 

 chicks, and covered the box with a j)iece of glass. The first 

 food I made of a little piece of the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, 

 a grain of boiled rice, and a drop of milk. After being well 

 mixed, I took this food with a fine piint-brush and held it to 

 the beak of the little chickens, and they soon learned to eat 

 the food from the brush. I fed them twice an hour, and at 

 night time I covered them with cotton wool and put them 

 back into the incubator. On the third day the birds started 

 pecking for food on the sand in the box, into which I now 

 put as many little white ants and black ants as I could get, 

 and they were eagerly sought for and devoured. The growth 

 of the birds was now very fast. 1 therefore gave them 

 more substantial food (boiled egg and rice mixed with 

 powdered dried meat), fine cut green stuff, and ants, on 

 which the chicks thrived well and were at Xmas time about 

 seven weeks old^ when they started feathering. This was 



