THE POULARD 59 



of which have been made tight to prevent the free 

 circulation of air. For food, a mixture of barley- 

 flour, oats, and buckwheat is moistened with milk, 

 and the dough is divided into little pieces or oblong 

 balls shaped like an olive and of about the length of 

 the little finger. At meal times, which must be very 

 regular, the feeder takes three hens at a time, ties 

 them together by the legs, puts them on his knees, 

 and, by the light of a lamp, begins by making them 

 swallow a spoonful of water or whey; then, taking 

 them by turns, he introduces a bolus into the beak of 

 each of the hens, and to facilitate the descent of the 

 large pieces he presses lightly with his fingers, pass- 

 ing from the base of the beak down to the crop. 

 While the bird that has been fed is recovering from 

 its painful deglutition, the two others are treated in 

 the same manner. To this first ball are added a sec- 

 ond, a third, and so on up to a dozen or fifteen, all 

 put into the beak and swallowed willingly or other- 

 wise. Their crops sufficiently full,, the three hens 

 are replaced in their cages, where they have nothing 

 to do but sleep and peacefully digest their copious 

 meal. The others go through the same treatment, 

 three by three, in a fixed order. " 



"And if the crop is stuffed too full with these 

 twelve or fifteen lumps of dough/' asked Jules, 

 "may not the bird die, choked with food?" 



"There is no great danger; all will go well. Be- 

 member the bird's astonishing powers of digestion 

 and the experiments I related to you on this sub- 

 ject." 



