108 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



But if a hen is really determined to sit, it is useless, as 

 well as cruel, to attempt to divert her from her object 

 The means usually prescribed are such as no humane 

 person would willingly put in practice. If the season is 

 too early to give a hope of rearing gallinaceous birds, 

 the eggs of ducks or geese may generally be had ; and 

 the young may be brought up with a little pains-taking, 

 as well as by their natural parent. And if it be required 

 to retain the services of a hen for expected valuable 

 eggs, she may be beguiled, for a week or ten days with 

 four or five old addled ones, till the choicer sort arrive. 



Three weeks is the period of incubation of the com- 

 mon hen. Sometimes, however, when she does not sit 

 close for the first day or two, or in early spring, it will 

 be some hours longer ; more frequently in our southern 

 climate, when the hen is assiduous and the weather 

 hot, the time will be a trifle shorter. But in cases of 

 artificial incubation, where the eggs are uniformly kept 

 at a temperature of from 101 to 102 F., the period is 

 sometimes hastened forty-eight hours. The range of 

 temperature, within which the eggs will hatch, varies 

 from 95 to 106 F. Towards the close of incubation, 

 the process may be suspended for one or two hours, or 

 even for a longer period, according to the degree of 

 extraneous heat which the eggs may derive from their 

 situation, without fatal consequences to the embryo 

 chick. 



The growth of the chick in the egg has been so fully 

 and so well described by many writers, from Aristotle 

 down to Reaumur, that I need merely refer the reader to 

 them. The observations of the latter, particularly, have 

 appeared in almost every compilation that has been pub- 

 lished on the subject ; and I think it much better taste 

 for common inquirers to betake themselves to such 

 sources of information, illustrated as they are by good 

 engravings, than to desire that a set of half-hatched 

 eggs should be broken to gratify their curiosity. A 

 shattered and imperfectly -formed chick, struggling in 

 vain in the fluid that ought to perfect its frame, till it 

 sinks in a gradual and convulsive death, is a horrible 



