410 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
When she has produced about twenty eggs a desire to sit is mani- 
fested: if this is permitted, twelve or fifteen eggs, placed in a basket 
filled with straw, are given her; uttering a peculiar clucking, and 
spreading her wings, she sits upon her treasures, and covers them 
with so much perseverance as sometimes to forget to eat or drink. 
During twenty-one days the eggs are maintained at a uniform 
temperature of about 40° centigrade; at the end of that time the 
young chickens burst their shell. The Hen fulfils the duties of a 
mother with incomparable devotion and tenderness ; she follows her 
young step by step, call them to her when they stray, and seeks 
nourishment for them, disregarding her own wants till theirs are 
satisfied. Against all dangers she warns and protects them. Ifa 
bird of prey appears, she hastens to meet it, and assumes such a 
menacing attitude that few will not decline the contest. The chickens 
rapidly develop. At the end of a month the crests of the males 
show ; at six months they have acquired the vigour necessary for re- 
production, females begin to lay about the same time. At the age of 
three months transforming the younger. birds into capons and 
pullets is performed—names given to those deprived of their sexual 
organs. In this condition they are fattened, and acquire a superior 
flavour and delicacy of flesh. Pullets and capons, in losing the gene- 
rative faculty, lose also the inherent characteristics of their sex. The 
temper of the male becomes so subdued that he has been made to 
perform maternal duties when a hen has deserted her chickens to 
recommence laying. This is done by plucking out feathers from the 
capon’s stomach, and then rubbing the part with nettles ; the chickens, 
gliding under him, allay the pain which the stings have caused, and 
thus the bird, deriving pleasure from his wards, soon attaches himself 
to them. The departments of Sarthe and Ain are celebrated for the 
pullets there raised. 
Hatching is sometimes performed by artificial incubation. In 
olden times the Egyptians had recourse to this means to increase the 
production of poultry. The method which was used, and which is 
still employed in modern Egypt, consists in placing the eggs in a fur- 
nace maintained for twenty-one days at a uniform temperature of 40° 
centigrade. By this means a hundred millions of fowls are annually 
produced in Egypt. Simple as this operation appears, it is not 
without difficulty, for attempts in France have never been crowned 
with success. In the Sunda Islands artificial incubation is ac- 
complished by men, who, for a small salary, remain for three weeks 
stretched out and immovable upon eggs placed in ashes. Antiquity — 
has bequeathed to us the story of the Empress Livia, who, being — 
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