CHIPPING OF THE EGGS. 299 



chick within the shell is that to which we are now 

 introduced, the period just preparatory to its 

 escape from the egg-shell into the world. This 

 escape is effected by its own efforts. It is highly 

 interesting to observe it by means of an artificial 

 incubator ; and perhaps few spectacles are more 

 gratifying to the beholder than to see his patience 

 rewarded by the appearance of an animated little 

 being, out of the shell which has so long been 

 watched, without any evidence, until within the 

 last day or two, of the existence of life within its 

 narrow confines. In this method of incubation it 

 is evident that no parental assistance can be given 

 to the struggling prisoner ; its exit must be from 

 first to last the result of its own patient and per- 

 severing hammerings at the shelly walls which 

 surround it. The observer is made sensible of the 

 near approach of this period when he sees 

 the egg exhibit the appearance technically called 

 " chipped." A little piece of the shell at almost 

 two-thirds of the way up the egg from the narrow 

 end, indicates that the hammering has begun, and 

 that the prisoner is soon about to burst open its 

 cell and make its escape. 



On examining the chick which has just begun 



