326 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



to be like so many small shrubs, which when wet 

 stick closely together and occupy very little room ; 

 but as they dry they untangle and part from each 

 other. The branchlets, or rather the beards of 

 each feather, were kept pressed close together by a 

 kind of membranous tube which surrounded them. 

 As the chick dries, the tube cracks, and the beards, 

 springing from each other, spread out. When 

 this is effected, each feather now occupies much 

 more room than it previously did ; and when they 

 are quite dry and smooth, the chicken is clad in 

 as pretty and comfortable a coat as one would 

 desire. In a few hours after its birth the chick is 

 as beautiful and sprightly a being of its kind as 

 possible ; its manners are so lively, innocent, and 

 pleasing, and its whole demeanour possesses such 

 an air of simplicity and naivete as to make it a 

 universal favourite." 



Perhaps it was the love for rearing such pretty 

 creatures which has induced ladies more than once 

 to carry the eggs of birds about with them, so as 

 to warm them, and finally, as it is said, to effect 

 their complete development. The historian Pliny 

 relates an anecdote of the kind about the empress 

 Livia. This lady carried a bird's egg about her 



