HATCHING AND REARING 



121 



them very closely, seldom leavinjT the 

 nest even for a few moments. This, of 

 course, means two most unpleasant pros- 

 pects — viz. starvation and suffocation. 



We know of no effectual cure for this 

 sweating in all cases, though experiments 

 which have been tried have 

 in some instances worked 

 wonders. AVe have seen 

 all manner of cures pre- 

 scribed, even to the extent 

 of rigging up a contrivance 

 which obliges the hen to 

 " sit " standing ; but we 

 cannot call to mind an 

 instance where a cure has 

 been effected by such a 

 method. We have known 

 of fanciers who have 

 washed their hens' breasts in 

 salt and water, of others 

 who have ducked them in 

 a pail of water, and done 

 other silly things in their 

 vexation and hasty mo- 

 ments, but with no result, 

 except that the hens con- 

 tinued to " sweat," and so did their 

 breeders in their endeavour to combat the 

 evil which promised to take off their 

 promising broods of youngsters. 



This ailment, however, is sometimes not 

 of long duration, and the ill effects may 

 then be combated successfully by removing 

 the cock, and thus obliging the hen to 

 leave her nest to feed, or else starve. 

 This, at all events, affords the young ones 

 an opijortunity of getting partly dried, 

 besides relieving them from the suffocating 

 pressure of the hen ; and to induce her 

 to come off as often as possible, it is well 

 to put the cock in an adjoining compart- 

 ment, if there be one vacant, or into one 

 of the spare nursery cages we have de- 

 scribed, and suspend it against the front 

 of the cage in which the hen is sitting. 

 The consequence will be that he will in- 

 cessantly call her to come to feed through 

 the wires — an invitation to which she will 

 frequently respond ; and the chances are 

 that, on returning to her nest, she will 

 16 



sometimes be inclined to feed the young 

 ones, whose importunity it is not easy to 

 withstand, and so this unpleasant feature 

 is occasionally so far ameliorated as to 

 allow of the brood being saved. 



We ourselves at one time were imder 



MRS. C. H. ROW AND HER YOUNG JAYS. 



I Photograph by Mr. Allen Silver.) 



the impression that hens really did " sweat " 



their young, but we have for some few years 



now altered our opinion, 



-* .. ^^^ \.. ~ and question whether 

 ing" a Reality? '^ „ , 



any hen really does do 



so. From close observation we have found 

 this sweaty, clammy appearance of the 

 young is not caused by the hens sweating, 

 but by the young suffering from an attack 

 of diarrhoea, caused possibly by the parents 

 having given them something in their food 

 which has temporarily upset their bowels. 

 The consequence of which is that the 

 excreta, instead of being in its normal 

 state and dealt with by the hen as pre- 

 viously explained, is soft and watery. 

 The hen is then unable to clear it from 

 the nest, and the heat of her body when 

 sitting, combined with that of the young, 

 draws this moisture up and causes the 

 sweating appearance of the nestlings. 

 Another point is that the j'oung birds 

 affected by this diarrhoea do not take 

 their food so freely, and the hen, becoming 



