EXTRICATION OF THE CHICK. 313 



when brought to a sense of their enormities, it 

 evinced a strong feeling of remorse." 



The common belief that the extrication of the 

 chick from the shell is assisted by the parent bird, 

 has been already alluded to ; and it may be here 

 repeated, that such assistance does not actually 

 appear to be given in the generality of cases. 

 Sometimes, however, it is customary to render 

 human assistance to the little prisoner with a view 

 to extricate it out of its shell. Many country 

 people have the custom of attempting to soften 

 the shell, and so facilitate the escape of the chick. 

 This they attempt to do by the not very rational 

 process of dipping the eggs in warm water, and 

 keeping them in it for some minutes on the day 

 previous to that on which the escape of the chick 

 is expected. It need scarcely be said, that such 

 a process is in vain with such an object in view, 

 nor does it appear that any other good result 

 attends the practice. Sometimes a little manual 

 assistance in extricating the chick has been found 

 useful. The shell is occasionally too hard, or the 

 chick is too feeble to break it through; in such 

 cases the attempt has been made to take off the 

 broad end of the egg, upon which the chick 



