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, Reaumur 

 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 round 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 coyer 

 sloped so as to prevent the chickens from climbing 

 on each other, and raising it as they increased m 



