SHELTERING OP THE YOUNG. 181 



A lady related to me has a vast number of chickens, 

 brought up every year with no other nurses than 

 capons ; and I have seen frequently at her Chateau 

 of Vaujour, near Livry, above two hundred chickens 

 that had only three or four capons for their leaders ; 

 it being* one of the advantages of this method, that 

 a capon may be trusted with two or three times as 

 many chickens as a hen can properly manage. 

 Another advantage is, that a capon may be set to 

 nurse at any given time, as he is always ready to 

 undertake the task, and he even seems to become 

 proud of his family in proportion as the number 

 increases; whereas hens will persecute and drive 

 away the chickens which are offered to them after a 

 certain age, and which are of course different in size 

 from those they have themselves hatched. Another 

 advantage consists in saving the hens from the 

 trouble of nursing, as in that case they will either 

 continue longer, or begin much sooner to lay ; while 

 the chance will be avoided of any disaster happening 

 to the chickens from being abandoned before they 

 can provide for themselves, by a mother in whom, 

 as often happens, laying is prematurely renewed *." 



The education of the capon for the maternal office 

 has been considered a matter of great difficulty. 

 Besides Baptista Porta's method of stinging the 

 capon with nettles, others advise making him tipsy 

 with wine or brandy when the chickens are put to 

 him, in order, as they profess, to make him fancy 

 himself a hen, when he sees them crowding round 

 him. Reaumur, upon trying this, found that in a 

 number of instances, the capon, instead of attending 

 to the chickens, trod upon and crushed several of 

 them to death, and gave others a drubbing with 



* Oiseaux Domestiques, Mem. vii. 



R 



