184 



HABITS OF BIRDS. 



" My apparatus," he says, " did not at first seem 

 sufficiently perfect ; for, though the chickens were 

 kept in warm air, they had no equivalent for the 

 gentle pressure of the belly of the mother upon their 

 backs when she sits over them. Their back is, in 

 fact, necessarily more warmed than the other parts of 

 the body while huddling under their mother's wings; 

 whereas their belly often rests on the cold moist 

 earth, the reverse of what took place in the apparatus, 

 where their feet were the best warmed. The chickens 

 themselves indicated that they were more in want of 

 having their backs warmed than any other part of 

 their body ; for, after all of them had repaired to the 

 warmest end of the apparatus, instead of squatting 

 as they naturally do when they rest, they remained 

 motionless, standing bolt upright upon their legs, 

 with their backs turned towards the sides or end of 

 the apartment in order to procure the necessary 

 warmth. I therefore judged that they wanted an 

 apparatus that might, by resting on them, determine 

 them to take the same attitude as they naturally 

 assume under the hens, and I contrived an inanimate 

 mother that might supply, in this respect, the want 

 of a living one*." 



Artificial Mothers. 



The artificial mother contrived upon these prin- 

 * Oiseaux Domestiques. 



