FACTS OBSERVED IN HATCHING. 153 
license. If, then, we take into account that six or 
eight broods are annually hatched in each oven, 
_and that each brood consists of from 40,000 to 
80,000, we may conclude that the gross number of 
chickens which are every year hatched in Egypt 
amounts to nearly 100,000,000. They lay their ac- 
count with losing about a third of all the eggs put 
into the ovens. The Bermean, indeed, guaranties 
only two thirds of the eggs with which he is in- 
trusted by the undertaker, so that out of 45,000 
eggs he is obliged to return no more than 30,000 
chickens. If he succeeds in hatching these, the 
overplus becomes his perquisite, which he adds to 
the sum of thirty or forty crowns, besides his 
board, that is paid him for. his six months’ work. 
A few years ago an individual in the vicinity of 
London contrived an apparatus for hatching by 
means of steam, and exhibited it in the Egyptian 
Hall, Piccadilly ; but we have not learned that he 
ever carried his invention so far as to make a trade 
of the chickens which he hatched. 
The importance of keeping the eggs at a uniform 
temperature is beautifully illustrated by the care 
which hens may be observed to take in arranging 
the eggs they. are hatching. Among other curious 
facts connected with this subject, is that of a hen 
throwing out or eating the eggs which she cannot 
conveniently cover. 
We had brought to us three eggs of the wood- 
wren (Sylvia sibilatrix, Becustein), and being anx- 
ious to have them hatched, we introduced them, 
after warming them slightly, into the nest of a ca- 
nary, then sitting upon four eggs of herown. In 
the course of the day two of her own eggs had dis- 
appeared, having, we inferred, been destroyed by 
her because she could not cover the seven so as 
to keep them at a uniform temperature, the three 
small eggs being nearly equal in size to the two 
which were gone. It is no doubt for the same 
