THE COIDION FOWL, 47 



licaci of his train, liis jealousy of a rival, tis 

 attention, and the peculiar note "with which 

 he calls the hens to partalce of some choice 

 morsel Avhich he has discovered or scratched 

 up, have been noticed again and again by all 

 familiar -"ivith that interesting spot, a well- 

 arranged farm-yard. After laying her egg, on 

 leaving the nest, the hen utters a loud cackling 

 cry, to which the cock often responds in a 

 high-toned kind of scream. The number of 

 eggs laid by a single hen during the spring 

 and summer months, varies according to cir- 

 cumstances — as diet, a suitable locality, etc, 

 but she can only cover in sitting from twelve 

 to sixteen. The chick breaks the egg on tb^ 

 twenty-first day ; in a few hours it is lively 

 and active. 



It is not only under the natural parent, whose 

 patience, care, and anxiety are proverbial, that 

 the eggs of the fowl are capable of being 

 hatched. Artificial means have been and are 

 successfully used, both in France and in 

 England ; and, as is well known, an establish- 

 ment for hatching eggs has been long main- 

 tained in Egypt, from which thousands of 

 fowls are annually distributed. The uni- 

 formity of the atmospheric temperature in 



