118 EGGS: THEIR PRESERVATION 



would be capable of such cruelty, would properly walk arm- 

 in-arm with the man who had tied a tin-kettle to his dog's 

 tail. The wisest way is to guide, instead of thwarting, the 

 impulses of nature. Let your good Hen indulge the instinct 

 implanted in her by a wiser Being than you : give her a sitting 

 of Duck's or Goose's Eggs, and, unless the winter be extra- 

 ordinarily severe, you must be a bungler if you do not rear 

 them by the aid of bread-crumbs, barley-meal, and a kitchen 

 fire. The autumnal laying of the China, and also of the Com- 

 mon Goose, is very valuable for the purpose. It need only 

 be remembered that too much confinement will give your 

 Goslings the cramp. But it is better to take a little pains, 

 than to be guilty of the above-mentioned cruelties, or to let 

 the poor creature spend her vivifying energies on an empty 

 nest. Turkey-hens frequently have this late fit of incubation, 

 and on the Continent are much more used as general hatchers 

 than they are with us. One, which had been supplied with 

 Duck's Eggs, hatched fifteen. As soon as she found out what 

 sort of beings she had introduced into the world, she glanced 

 at them a look of that ineffable scorn, which a Turkey's eye 

 can so well express, strutted slowly away, and never would 

 notice them more. The Ducklings, however, were reared in 

 spite of her airs;" the fire-side and their own innate vigour sus- 

 taining them under the excusable neglect of their haughty 

 foster-mother. One of mine chose to sit on some of her own 

 Eggs in the middle of a turnip field at the end of October, 

 1847. This would never do; so we brought her home, and 

 set her upon seven Eggs of the Common Goose in a warm 

 out-house. She hatched six birds, one of which was killed by 

 accident. The remaining five she reared with the greatest 

 affection. A little ordinary care, with a liberal supply of 

 endive, cabbage-leaves, and other garden refuse, and, in time 

 also, of baney, thus furnished us with a welcome lot of early 

 Geese. 



