CARE OF THE EGGS. 293 



to her nest. At the same time the eggs are not smoth- 

 ered by this devotion, for the texture of her feathers is 

 such that during high winds a little air will surely strain 

 through them no matter how closely she broods, while 

 the poisonous emanations will escape, and, unlike the 

 incubator, she cannot possibly become hot enough under 

 any circumstances to ruin the eggs, any more than the 

 temperature of a human being in health can rise above a 

 certain point. Her vital fires are absolutely limited as 

 regards excessive heat, When the air is damp, warm and 

 still, she leaves the nest at slight inducements and remains 

 away quite a time, unless there are signs of an approach- 

 ing storm, in which case she hurries to lay in a supply of 

 food in the shortest time possible, and hastens back. 

 Lest the reader think we are attributing too much to 

 her powers of discernment, it may be remarked that not 

 the sitting fowl alone, but animals generally possess a 

 keen sense of impending storms. The swine will carry 

 straw to their bed at such times, and all wild animals, 

 whether birds or quadrupeds, are very active in hunting 

 for food, which they devour with unusual greed, as if 

 impressed with the urgency for laying up for a rainy 

 day. Yet for this monitor, sensitive to coming atmos- 

 pheric changes which man with all his intellect cannot 

 discern, this engineer always on duty, this living ther- 

 mometer, barometer, and aerometer, a wooden box is 

 substituted and "a child can run it! " 



As regards the superiority of the natural covering to 

 the eggs, afforded by the hen's feathers, compared with 

 the incubator walls, Cyphers, unlike numerous other 

 writers who have a machine to sell, frankly acknowledges 

 the inferiority of such walls, and points out with empha- 

 sis that the down and feathers control physical forces 

 which exert an important influence over the embryonic 

 development. He says : 



"Other conditions being equal, the degree of humidity ordinarily 

 existing in the atmospheric air is sufficient for successful incubation, 



