276 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



fowl. This is several degrees higher than the 

 blood-heat point in man. 



The produce of chickens hatched by this system 

 is stated to be as follows. If the incubator is used 

 the year round with a hundred eggs at each time, 

 the average number of chickens will be seventy- 

 five out of the hundred ; and the hatching may be 

 carried on eighteen times in the year ; the annual 

 produce therefore, from one of the smallest in- 

 cubators, would be about thirteen hundred and fifty 

 chickens. It is considered that on a large scale a 

 fowl can be produced and reared upon this method 

 until it is fit for table, at a total cost of from eight 

 to ten pence. At the period of our visit to this 

 hatching farm, a number of incubators were em- 

 ployed in the artificial rearing of the eggs of 

 pheasants, partridges, and Guinea-fowl ; which are 

 said to be equally successfully managed with those 

 of the common barn-door hen. It is said, that 

 in some cases a larger number of eggs can be 

 successfully hatched by this method, even than 

 by the natural parent ; the risk from disease, 

 from violence, or from straying, being fre- 

 quently very great when the bird has been the 

 incubator. 



