On National Character. 345 
hatched. The discipline and counsel, if 1 may 
be allowed theterm, of the hen have ina measure 
softened and ‘corrected their disposition; and 
being regularly -visited without being injured, 
has also had its effect in lessening their terror at 
the sight of man. Asthe summer approaches 
these also bring forth eggs, which -in like 
manner with the former, are placed under 
some very tame and familiar hen, and are 
hatched in due season. The young, like 
their progenitors, are wild and untractable ; 
but the hen exercises ber influence and au- 
thority ; she persuades, and threatens, and 
some further impression is made ; they are 
not quite so fearful of man as the last brood, 
but still are eager to escape, and among wild 
ducks would be as though they had been 
hatched among them. By pursuing the same 
plan a few generations more, the object ainred 
at is obtained; wildness no longer exists ; for, 
a radical change has been effected, not only 
in the habits, Lut in the disposition of the 
animal. The young as soon as hatched are 
now tame; they require no discipline, no 
restraint; the building in which they were 
brought up is their home, and to it they re- 
turn.as the night approaches. So great is the 
change produced by domestication, that it has 
the semblance. of adding to the world a new 
Xx 
