FOR INCUBATION. 121 



in the notion that there are Hens in existence that habitually 

 lay more than one egg a day. One author says, there are 

 Hens wild in Sumatra that lay three Eggs in a day; but he 

 omits to state who watched these wild Hens to and from their 

 nests. Another (Richardson) describing the Cochin China 

 fowl (2d Edition, p. 38) says, "they are prolific Hens; Mr. 

 Nolan's frequently laying two, and, occasionally, three Eggs 

 on the same day, and within a few moments of each other." 

 The statement is confirmed by Irish Arithmetic. "One of 

 the Hens/' he continues, "Bessy, exhibited by her Majesty, 

 laid ninety -four Eggs in one hundred and threo days," not 

 quite three Eggs a day, according to our " calcule." But if this 

 be a fact, there is no limit to the improvement of which these 

 double-barrelled Hens are capable, till, by the aid of forcing 

 and extra diet, they become, like Mr. Perkins's steam gun, 

 able to discharge Eggs at the rate of several dozens in a minute. 

 Seriously, it is quite true that the Hen, like other creatures 

 that usually produce but one at a birth, has an occasional 

 tendency to produce twins; but I believe it will be found that 

 such twins hitherto observed, have been united in one shell, and 

 not produced separately. Double-yolked Eggs are well known 

 to cooks, and to farmers' wives. Some with triple yolks occur 

 now and then, but rarely. Twin chickens may have rarely 

 proceeded from one Egg. The classic fable of Castor and 

 Pollux looks like some such experience among the ancients; 

 but those Eggs, being oversized, are usually reject**! for hatch- 

 ing, and I remember no really authenticated instance of the 

 kind, unless the reader be good-naturedly disposed to accept 



averse to any means being used to force Hens to lay, (such as min- 

 gling cayenne-pepper, &c., with their food,) as it induces premature 

 decrepitude. I am continually finding Fowls suffering from dropsy, 

 which I attribute to this cause. I have taken from a Hen two bags 

 of clear water containing a quarter of a pint, and dissection proved 

 their connection with the ovarian system." John Bailey. 



II 



