176 GAME PEESERVEES AND BIRD PEESEEVEES. 



Every morning the keeper opens the lid. If 

 the hen is wild she will walk off of herself; if 

 not, he lifts her and puts her through into the 

 coop, where she finds food, water, and dry 

 earth. At the end of three quarters of an 

 hour he has only to draw back each shde and 

 each hen glides on of herself A hen that does 

 not go on willingly, or that comes off again, is 

 on the strike. You detect her at once, and save 

 the eggs. A double row of tliirty boxes will 

 hold sixty hens, which will hatch 1,000 eggs. 

 A keeper will go down and put them all off in 

 ten minutes ; he can go about other things, and 

 come and let them all on again in five minutes, 

 when they have been off a clear three quar- 

 ters of an hour. It takes a man a whole morn- 

 ing to feed these hens twenty at a time ; and, 

 again, a hen never breaks an egg if she walks 

 on the nest, but often does so when struggling 

 out of a man's hands. But do not let any 

 novice forget to shut the door when he puts 

 the hen off, and to keep her off for the proper 



