THE POULTRY KIND. 8 



cluck, they stint her in her provisions, and if that fails, they plunge 

 her into cold water ; this, for the time, effectually puts back her hatch- 

 ing; but then it often kills the poor bird, who takes cold, and dies 

 uikder the operation. 



If left entirely to herself, the hen would seldom lay above twenty 

 eggs in the same nest, without attempting to hatch them : but in pro- 

 portion as she lays, her eggs are removed ; and she continues to lay, 

 vainly hoping to increase the number. In the wild state the hen sel- 

 dom lays above fifteen eggs; but then her provision ismore difficultly 

 obtained, and she is perhaps sensible of the difficulty of maintain- 

 ing too numerous a family. 



When the hen begins to sit, nothing can exceed her perseverance 

 and patience ; she continues for some days immoveable ; and when 

 forced away by the importunities of hunger, she quickly returns. 

 Sometimes, also, her eggs become too hot for her to bear, especially 

 if she be furnished with too warm a nest within doors, for then she is 

 obliged to leave them to cool a little : thus the warmth of the nest 

 only retards incubation, and often puts the brood a day or two back in 

 the shell. While the hen sits, she carefully turns her eggs, and even 

 removes them to different situations, till at length, in about three 

 weeks, the young brood begins to give signs of a desire to burst their 

 confinement. When by the repeated efforts of their bill, which serves 

 like a pioneer on this occasion, they have broke themselves a passage 

 through the shell, the hen still continues to sit till all are excluded. 

 The strongest and best chickens generally are the first candidates for 

 liberty : the weakest come behind, and some even die in the shell. 

 When all are produced, she then leads them forth to provide for them- 

 selves. Her affection and her pride seem then to alter her very na- 

 ture, and correct her imperfections. No longer voracious or coward- 

 ly, she abstains from all food that her young can swallow, and flies 

 boldly at every creature that she thinks is likely to do them mischief. 

 Whatever the invading animal be, she boldly attacks him ; the horse, 

 the hog, or the mastiff. When marching at the head of her little 

 troop, she acts the commander, and has a variety of notes to call her 

 numerous train to their food, or to warn them of approaching danger. 

 Upon one of these occasions, I have seen the whole brood run for se- 

 curity into the thickest part of a hedge, when the hen herself ven- 

 tured boldly forth, and faced a fox that came for plunder. With a 

 good mastiff, however, we soon sent the invader back to his retreat; 

 but not before he had wounded the hen in several places. 



Ten or twelve chickens are the greatest number that a good hen 

 can rear and clutch at a time ; but as this bears no proportion to the 

 number of her eggs, schemes have been imagined to clutch all the 

 eggs of a hen, and thus turn her produce to the greatest advantage. 

 By these contrivances it has been obtained that a hen that ordinarily 

 produces but twelve chickens in the year, is found to produce as 

 many chickens as eggs, and consequently often above two hundred 

 The contrivance I mean is the artificial method of hatching chickens 

 in stoves, as is practised at Grand Cairo, or in a chymical elaborate- 

 ry properly graduated, as has been effected by Mr. Reaumur. At 

 Grand Cairo, they thus produce six or seven thousand chickens at a 

 tare, where, as they are brought forth in their mild spring, \vMch is 



