AND TURKEY. 235 



satisfied herself, she will return to the nest, and the 

 grating is to be replaced. She will not require food 

 again till next morning at the same time. In this 

 manner we have attended to half a dozen Hens and 

 a couple of Turkeys, engaged in the process of incuba- 

 tion at the same time ; the operation of removing and 

 replacing the whole, not occupying more than half an 

 hour each morning, and the birds, without the least 

 confusion, all again set upon their respective nests. 

 The attention incident upon these creatures at this time 

 is very interesting; in a day or two, they become so 

 familiar, as to permit themselves to be handled with- 

 out fear, apparently conscious that no harm is meant ; 

 and as the period when the chick is destined to emerge 

 from the shell approaches, they become more cautious 

 and solicitous, that no injury shall befal the tender 

 cases which envelope their future hopes. 



The time which a Common Hen sits is twenty-one 

 days, that of a Turkey and Duck about twenty-nine or 

 thirty days. 



On the day previous to being hatched, the chirp of 

 the bird in the shell proclaims, both to the attendant 

 and parent, that the young are about to make ap- 

 pearance ; and, on the day following, if all goes well, 

 the whole brood will be found rolling amongst broken 

 fragments of their late frail tenements. The mother is, 

 at this juncture, to be handled with very great care and 

 tenderness ; she is to be removed to the feeding board, 



