THE TURKEY. 869 



swallow a whole pepper-corn;" which is as if pre were to cram 

 a London pippin down the throat of a new-born babe. Others 

 again say, " Give them a little ale, beer, or wine." We know, 

 unhappily, that some mothers are wicked enough to give their 

 infants gin, and we know the consequences. Not a few advise 

 that they be taken away, and kept in a basket by the fire-side, 

 wrapped in flannel, for eight or ten hours. Why take them 

 away from her ? She has undergone no loss, nor pain, nor 

 labour : she wants no rest, having had too much of that 

 already. All she requires is the permission to indulge un- 

 disturbed the natural exercise of her own affectionate instinct. 

 Give them nothing ; do nothing to them : let them be in 

 the nest under the shelter of their mother's wings, at least 

 eight or ten hours : if hatched in the afternoon, till the fol- 



O * ' 



lowing morning. Then place her on the grass, in the sun, 

 under a roomy coop. If the weather be fine, she may be sta- 

 taioned where you choose, by a long piece of flannel-list tied 

 round one leg, and fastened to a stump or a stone. But the 

 boarded coop saves her ever-watchful anxiety from the dread 



growing animal, but cold and hunger only dwarf and weaken. We 

 see robust children in extremely poor families, not because they are 

 poor, but because, if they were not robust, they would not be alive at 

 all. Sir John, in his " Treatise on Improving the Breeds of Do- 

 mestic Animals," pp. 15, 16, says, " In cold and barren countries, no 

 animals can live to the age of maturity but those that have strong 

 constitutions ; the weak and the unhealthy do not live to propagate 

 their infirmities, as is too often the case with our domestic animals. 

 To this I attribute the peculiar hardiness of the horses, cattle, and 

 sheep, bred in mountainous countries, more than to their having been 

 inured to the severity of the climate ; for our domestic animals do 

 not become more hardy by being exposed, when young, to cold and 

 hunger : animals so treated will not, when arrived at the age of ma 

 turity, endure so much hardship as those who have been better kept 

 in their infant state." 



