PO A HISTORY OF 



warmer than our summer, the young ones thrive without clutching 

 But it is otherwise in our colder and unequal climate ; the little ani- 

 mal may without much difficulty be hatched from the shell ; but they 

 almost all perish when excluded. To remedy this, Reaumur has 

 made use of a woollen hen, as he calls it, which was nothing more 

 than putting the young ones in a warm basket, and clapping over them 

 a thick woollen canopy. I should think a much better substitute migh 

 be found ; and this from among the species themselves. Capons may 

 very easily be taught to clutch a fresh brood of chickens throughout 

 the year ; so that when one little colony is thus reared, another may 

 be brought to succeed it. Nothing is more common than to see ca- 

 pons thus employed, and the manner of teaching them is this : first 

 the capon is made very tame, so as to feed from one's hand ; then 

 about evening, they pluck the feathers off his breast, and rub the bare 

 skin with nettles; they then put the chickens to him, which present 

 y run under his breast and belly, and probably rubbing his bare skin 

 gently with their heads allay the stinging pain which the nettles had 

 just produced. This is repeated for two or three nights, till the ani* 

 mal takes an affection to the chickens that have thus given him relief, 

 and continues to give them the protection they seek for : perhaps also 

 the querulous voice of chickens may be pleasant to him in misery, and 

 invite him to succour the distressed. He from that time brings up a 

 brood of chickens like a hen, clutching them, feeding them, clucking, 

 and performing all the functions of the tenderest parent. A capon 

 once accustomed to this service, will not give over ; but when one 

 brood is grown up, he may have another nearly hatched put under him, 

 which he will treat with the same tenderness he did the former. 



The cock, from his salaciousness, is allowed to be a short lived 

 animal ; but how long these birds live, if left to themselves, is not yet 

 well ascertained by any historian. As they are kept only for profit, 

 and in a few years become unfit for generation, there are few that, 

 "rom mere motives of curiosity, will make the tedious experiment of 

 maintaining a proper number till they die. Aldrovandus hints their 

 age to be ten years ; and it is probable that this may be its extent. 

 They are subject to some disorders, which it is not our business to 

 describe ; and as for poisons, besides nux vomica, which is fatal to 

 most animals except man, they are injured, as Linnaeus asserts, by 

 lder-berries, of which they are not a little fond. 



CHAPTER III. 



OF THE PEACOCK. 



THE Peacock, by the common people of Italy, is said to have tho 

 plumage of an angel, the voice of a devil, and the guts of a thief. 

 In fact each of these qualities mark pretty well the nature of trna 



