CHAPTER XVIII. 



ARTIFICIAL HATCHING. 



A LITTLE consideration of what was known of Artificial 

 Hatching, previous to our applying the art to the multi- 

 plication of Ostriches, will prove, I believe, both interest- 

 ing and instructive to the farmer. 



In nature we have only one kind of bird that does 

 not sit on its eggs, using instead artificial heat : this 

 is the ^' Megapadius tumulus,'^ the jungle-fowl of Aus- 

 tralia. This bird is described as making immense heaps 

 of vegetable matter, said in some cases to be fifteen 

 feet in height by fifty in circumference, and to be used 

 by several pairs of birds jointU'', for several years in 

 succession. The eggs are laid singly at a depth of 

 several feet in the heap, and the holes filled in, the 

 requisite heat being generated by the decay of the 

 vegetable matter, as they are observed to be made where 

 the foliage is thick and the rays of the sun cannot 

 penetrate. In the back parts of Western Australia, on 

 the sandy plains, where probably the necessarj^ amount 

 of vegetable matter and deep shade are hard to procure, 

 the birds lay their eggs inside great heaps of sand 



