52 ARTIFICIAL HATCHING. 



have no hens or larger chickens to peck at them ; they have their 

 artificial mother, kept up to the temperature of the natural 

 mother ; and it is beyond conception, how they will adhere to the 

 warmth of the mother, prepared for them, and run in under the 

 woollen cloth, as if it was natural to them. Each age has its 

 separate compartment, with an opportunity, in fine weather, of 

 passing out to a grass-plot ; and you will see them enjoying them- 

 selves in the open air, and, when at all chilled, returning to the 

 artificial mother, and making themselves perfectly comfortable. 



My astonishment at the fine, healthy, and vast number of 

 chickens produced by this means, has caused me to begin rather 

 at the wrong end, having described the chickens before I have 

 hatched them. The hatching apparatus is a table, the upper 

 part of which is kept up to 106 degrees, and is padded with Indian 

 rubber ; the eggs are placed in a tray, with perforated bottom, 

 and laid on a woollen cloth, and raised, to come in contact with 

 the rubber, which sinks and covers the eggs as much as the 

 natural mother is supposed to do; thus nature is represented as 

 nearly as possible. After incubation, the artificial mother con- 

 sists of a number of heated pipes, about an inch and a quarter in 

 diameter, and about the same distance apart, resting on sup- 

 porters, about five inches from the floor ; beneath these pipes 

 is a sliding-board, which is always at such a height as to allow 

 the backs of the chickens to touch the pipes, and is gradually 

 lowered as they increase in size. This board is removed and 

 cleaned every day, or replaced by another, which had served the 

 day before, and had been cleaned and aired during the twenty-four 

 hours preceding ; above the pipe3 (about an inch) is another 

 board, similar to that below, from which descends a curtain in 

 front of the mother ; this board serves the double purpose of 

 economizing the warmth, and preventing the chickens from 

 dirtying each other, as they are fond of jumping on the mother, 

 if not prevented. The young chickens having been once placed 

 beneath this mother, will only leave it to eat, drink, and exercise, 

 and return to it, of their own accord. The patentee, Mr. Cantelo, 

 has had equal success in rearing turkeys, pea, and guinea fowl ; 

 and, although I have seen ducks in all quarters of Great Britain, 

 I have never seen, in one lot, so fine a collection as those produced 

 by the Hydro- Incubator. 



Having, on my journey, visited the great aviary of the Earl of 

 Derby, I there found the Incubator in its perfect working state, 

 and was informed by his lordship's intelligent curator, it was most 

 valuable for hatching out the eggs of foreign birds. 



