132 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



FACTS OBSERVED IN HATCHING. 



IT is indispensable to hatching, that an equable 

 temperature be kept up of about 96 Fahr. or 32 

 Reaum., for at lower temperatures the living 1 prin- 

 ciple appears to become torpid and unable to 

 assimilate the nourishment provided for developing 

 the embryo. Proceeding upon this principle, the 

 Egyptians, as well as those who have tried the 

 experiment in Europe, have succeeded by means of 

 artificial heat in hatching eggs without any aid 

 from the mother birds. 



One of the most remarkable stories respecting 

 artificial hatching is that arising out of a girlish 

 superstition of the Roman Empress Livia. The 

 tale is told by Pliny: " She took an egge, and 

 ever carried it about her in her warme bosome ; and 

 if at any time she had occasion to lay it away, she 

 would convey it closely out of her own warme lap 

 into her nurse's for fear it should chill *." M. Reau- 

 mur mentions some modern instances of a similar 

 kind : " One lady hatched four goldfinches out of 

 five eggs from the same nest ; one of the eggs having 

 proved a rotten one, she was obliged to keep them 

 warm only for ten days. Another lady," he adds, 

 " told me a more extraordinary, though by no 

 means an incredible fact of the same kind, assuring 

 me she had seen a female lap-dog sit on eggs quite 



Holland's Plinie, x. 55. 



