158 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
the apparatus, where their feet were the best warmed 
‘The chickens themselves indicated that they were 
more in want of having their backs warmed than 
any other part of their body; for, after all of them 
had repaired to the warmest end of the apparatus, 
instead of squatting as they naturally do when they 
rest, they remained motionless, standing bolt up- 
right upon their legs, with their backs turned towards 
the sides or end of the apartment in order to pro- 
cure the necessary warmth. I therefore judged 
that they wanted an apparatus that might, by rest- 
ing on them, determine them to take the same atti- 
tude as they naturally assume under the hens, and 
I contrived an inanimate mother that might supply, 
in this respect, the want of a living one.” 
The artificial mother contrived upon these prin- 
ciples, consists of a box lined with sheepskin, with 
the wool on it, the bottom being of a square form, 
and the upper part sloped like a writing-desk. This 
box is placed at the end of a crib or cage, shut with 
a grating of willow, net, or wire, and closed above 
with a hinged lid, the whole being so formed that 
the chickens can walk round the sides. The slope 
of the cover permits the chickens to arrange them- 
selves according to their sizes; but as it is their 
practice, as well as that of all other young birds, to 
press very closely together, and even to climb upon 
one another, the small and the weak being thereby 
in danger of being crushed or smothered, Réaumur 
constructed his artificial mother open at both ends, 
or, at most, with only a loose netting hanging over 
it. Through this the weakest chicken can escape 
when it feels itself too much squeezed, and then, 
by going rouad to the other opening, it may find a 
less dangerous neighbourhood. The ingenious au- 
thor even made improvements upon this contri- 
vance, one of which consisted in keeping the cover 
sloped so as to prevent the chickens from climbing 
on each other, and raising it as they increased in 
