64 OUIl DOMESTIC FOWLS. 



been placed, stretches out its neck, directing it 

 forwards, but for several minutes is unable to 

 raise it. On seeing for the first time a chick 

 in this condition we are led to infer that its 

 strength is exhausted, and that it is ready to 

 expire ; but in most cases it recruits rapidly, 

 its organs acquire strength, and in a very short 

 time it appears quite another creature. After 

 having dragged itself on its legs a little while, 

 it becomes capable of standing on them, and 

 of lifting up its neck, and bending it in 

 various directions, and at length of holding up 

 its head. At this period the feathers are 

 merely fine down, but as they are wet with 

 the fluid of the egg the chick appears almost 

 naked. From the multitude of their branch- 

 lets, these down feathers resemble minute 

 shrubs ; when, however, these branchlets are 

 wet and sticking to each other, they take up 

 but very little room ; as they dry they become 

 disentangled and separated. The branchlets, 

 plumules, or beards of each feather are at first 

 inclosed in a membranous tube, by which they 

 are pressed and kept close together, but as 

 soon as this dries it splits asunder, an effect 

 assisted also by the elasticity of the plumules 

 themselves, which causes them to recede and 



