THE YOUNG CHICKENS 49 



gest; they must have something at once nutritious 

 and easy to digest. Their pap is composed of finely 

 crumbled bread, a few salad leaves well chopped up, 

 hard-boiled eggs, and a pinch of fine millet to accus- 

 tom them by degrees to a diet of grain. The whole is 

 carefully mixed. 



"On coming out of the shell, the young chickens, 

 like other birds from a relatively large egg, are quick 

 at taking food for themselves; nevertheless it is 

 necessary, from their utter inexperience, for the 

 mother to show them how to strike the beak into the 

 pap. Let us witness this lesson of the first mouth- 

 ful. The farmer's wife has just put the food under 

 the coop. t What is this I 9 perhaps the innocent little 

 chickens ask, their stomachs beginning to cry hunger 

 now that they have been nearly twenty-four hours 

 out of the shell. 'What is this?' All flurried with 

 joy, the mother calls them to the plate in accents re- 

 sembling articulate speech. They approach, totter- 

 ing on their little legs. The hen then gives a few 

 pecks in the mess, but only pretends to eat, so as not 

 to diminish the dainty food reserved for the little 

 'ones. One of the chickens, perhaps a little quicker 

 of apprehension than the rest, seems to have under- 

 stood ; it seizes a crumb of bread in its beak but im- 

 mediately lets it fall again. The mother begins 

 again, urges, encourages with her voice and look, and 

 this time swallows in plain sight of them all. The 

 young chicken returns to its crumb and after two or 

 three attempts succeeds in swallowing it, half closing 

 its eyes with satisfaction. 'Ha! how good it is!' it 



