SHELTERING OF THE YOUNG. 157 



four unfledged skylarks. She took a strong liking 

 to these new-comers, which were scarcely younger 

 than herself; she attended them night and day, 

 cherished them beneath her wings, and fed them 

 with her bill. Nothing could interrupt her tender 

 offices. If the young ones were torn from her, she 

 flew to them as soon as she was liberated, and 

 would not think of effecting her own escape, which 

 she might have done a hundred times. Her affec- 

 tion grew upon her; she neglected food and drink; 

 she now required the same support as her adopted 

 offspring; and expired at last, consumed with ma- 

 ternal anxiety. None of the young ones survived 

 her. They died one after another; so essential 

 were her cares, which were equally tender and 

 judicious." 



But in the case of artificial hatching by means 

 of ovens, it must frequently be found impossible to 

 procure a sufficient number of nurses either of hens 

 or capons ; and in that case, in order to rear the 

 chickens successfully, artificial methods must be 

 continued. Were all the assiduities indeed of the 

 hen required, it would be next to impossible to find 

 an artificial substitute ; but as her chief object is to 

 procure food and secure warmth, these, with a little 

 attention, may be supplied as well, or even better, by 

 art than by the most assiduous mother. Reaumur, 

 in the course of his interesting experiments, tried 

 several plans for the substitution of what he aptly 

 denominates an artificial mother. 



" My apparatus," he says, " did not at first seem 

 sufficiently perfect ; for, though the chickens were 

 kept in warm air, they had no equivalent for the 

 gentle pressure of the belly of the mother upon 

 their backs when she sits over them. Their back 

 is, in fact, necessarily more warmed than the other 

 parts of the body while huddling under their moth- 

 er's wings ; whereas their belly often rests on the 

 cold, moist earth, the reverse of what took place in 

 O 



