226 FARMING FOR LADIES. [chap. x. 



the use of their wings, no fence can hold 

 them ; they will stray over the adjoining fields, 

 and the hen will seek some sequestered hedge 

 or briar where she may lay her eggs in 

 secret ; which she manages with such in- 

 conceivable cunning that broods have been 

 brought home without any one knowing 

 where they had been reared. 



We some years ago resided upon a large 

 farm where there were several pintadas, but al- 

 though most of their eggs were discovered, we 

 could never prevail upon any of them to sit upon 

 nests prepared in a house, and some of those 

 which did sit in the bushes never produced a 

 single chick. This, however, we presume to 

 have been rather occasioned by the pilferage 

 of the peasantry, or the destruction of the 

 chicks by rats or other vermin, than by any 

 fault of the hens. 



Although troublesome in the poultry-yard 

 and garden, they are yet so much esteemed 

 upon the table as to be always a desirable 

 addition to the stock of fowls. It is, there- 

 fore, a good mode to put the eggs under a 

 common hen — which will cover fifteen — and 

 when the chicks are strong enough to be 



