120 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



quired, the feathers must be plucked from off his 

 breast, and the bare skin be irritated by rubbing it 

 with nettles. The chickens must then be put to him ; 

 they will naturally huddle under him, and by rubbing 

 with their little downy heads allay the irritation caused 

 by the nettles. This process being repeated for two or 

 three nights, he will gradually conceive an affection 

 for the chickens, and attend to them like a hen. The 

 writer suggests that this attachment may be based on 

 the principle of mutual distress producing mutual 

 sympathy, and that the querulous chirp .of the chick- 

 ens may make the capon, while in pain himself, de- 

 sirous of allaying their misery. A capon once accus- 

 tomed to this office will not abandon it, but when one 

 brood is grown up sufficiently, another newly-hatched 

 brood may be substituted in their place, and so on in 

 succession, the last chickens being as carefully attend- 

 ed to as were the first." 



With respect to artificial mothers, they are undoubt- 

 edly useful when there is no natural parent nor trained 

 capon to protect and warm the chickens ; and many 

 persons are great advocates for them. These mothers 

 are nothing more than wooden trays, or boxes, so con- 

 trived as to impart the necessary heat to the young 

 chickens, after exclusion from the egg, till they are 

 sufficiently strong and grown to need no further assist- 

 ance. When chickens are hatched by artificial means, 

 as by the eccaleobion, or in an oven, these protectors 

 are essential ; for, without some substitute for the 

 parent, the chicks would perish. They are described 

 as being framed of a board ten inches broad and fifteen 

 inches long, resting on two legs in front, four inches in 

 height, and on two props behind, two inches in height. 

 The board must be perforated with many small gimlet 

 holes for the escape of the heated air, and lined with 

 lambskin, dressed with the wool on ; the woolly side 

 is to come in contact with the chickens. Over three 

 of these mothers, a wicker basket is to be placed for 

 the protection of the chickens, four feet long, two feet 



