NATURAL HATCHDs^G. 109 



the nest, a boy should go about with them all day, 

 otherwise they will get very wild ; and although when 

 taken away from the old birds this wildness may appear 

 to leave them, it has not really done so : it will show 

 out again as they get older. 



In most broods, if examined, some will be found to 

 have a hard lump hanging to the navel. This is part 

 of the yolk-sac that has not been taken in when the 

 chick hatched, or was helped out by the parent bird, and 

 the navel has contracted and left it out. In artificial 

 hatching we always push it in, but in nature it dries up, 

 and the chick is deprived of so much of the yolk. It 

 will be noticed that these chicks when left to nature do 

 not thrive at first as well as the others. 



Some farmers build little huts or weather-screens 

 over the nests, but they do not answer well, whilst the 

 sand nests are perfect in themselves. 



Many breeders consider it detrimental to take the 

 feathers of breeding birds. As far as their inclination 

 for breeding goes this is quite a mistake, though the 

 feathers may help them to cover their eggs, and they 

 are certainly beneficial to them in rearing their young. 

 But in artificial hatching and rearing, leaving the 

 feathers on the birds is simply a dead loss. 



Beginners want cautioning^ that, no matter how tame 

 the parent birds may be, directly they hear the chicks 



