112 FARMING FOR LADIES, [chap. iv. 



nature, they are gradually metamorphosed 

 into a living being provided with blood-ves- 

 sels, nerves, muscles, tendons, cartilages, liga- 

 ments, membranes, and bones. The yellow 

 yolk, and the transparent colourless albumen, 

 are changed into blood and muscles, which are 

 red ; into the liver, which is brown ; into gall, 

 which is green ; into white and opaque nervous 

 matter ; into the horny beak and claws ; into 

 feathers, offering every variety of hue ; and 

 into the hard and solid bones." 



Both mistress and maid, no doubt, count 

 the days to the arrival of the twenty-first, 

 and then look anxiously for the appearance 

 of the chicks, which will be chirping and 

 hammering at the shell with their beaks, the 

 hen all the while intently watching for their 

 deliverance, in which she assists the little pri- 

 soners so far as in her power, and throws away 

 the shells when they are liberated. The 

 chicken has on the upper part of its bill a 

 horny appendage, placed there by nature with 

 the evident intent of enabling it to perforate 

 the shell and effect its emancipation, for it 

 falls off within a day or two after the bird is 

 hatched. Some chickens perform the opera- 



