208 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. ix. 



coming out of the shell, a few drops of warm 

 ale, or wine, may be given them, by having 

 the liquid in one's mouth and putting their 

 bill into it, if they have not strength enough 

 to swallow the drink ; but the greatest gen- 

 tleness must be used in handling them, for 

 they are even more tender than the chicks of 

 common fowls, and may be killed by roughly 

 forcing anything down their throat, as fre- 

 quently done with pepper-corns. Nothing, in- 

 deed, should be given to them to eat until they 

 are at least a day old, and then it- should be 

 presented to them in the palm of the hand, 

 when the hen may have for a short time 

 left them ; nor, in doing so, should they be 

 taken out of the nest. 



The chicks, when hatched, are covered with 

 a soft, hairy down, of extreme delicacy, and 

 continue very feeble for a few days — of which 

 the third is always thought critically danger- 

 ous — during which time they should be kept 

 in the house,' and only carried into the air for 

 a short time in the middle of the day in very 

 fine weather : the hen being all the time con- 

 fined in a wicker hutch, having bars wide 

 enough to allow of the chicks' egress and 



