DISEASES OF POULTRY. 289 



points out that they ought to have an additional supply 

 of food till all danger is over. 



Warmth is no less necessary than abundant and 

 nourishing food ; and when the later broods of chickens 

 fall off, in their appetite, appear moping and inactive, 

 their feathers staring and falling off till their rumps, 

 sides, and thighs show the naked skin, they must be 

 prevented from getting out in cold mornings too early, 

 and not permitted to be abroad after four o'clock in the 

 afternoon. M. Chomel, of France, advises, further, to 

 put some sugar in their water, and to give them millet 

 and hemp seed. 



After the third year, it has been observed, that fowls 

 begin to moult later every succeeding year, so that it is 

 frequently as late as January before the older fowls come 

 into full feather, and the weather being then cold, they 

 are not in a laying state till the end of March, or later. 

 The time of moulting continues, according to the age 

 and health of the fowls, and also with reference to mild 

 or cold weather, from six weeks to three months. 



CHANG-E OF COLOR. 



A REMARKABLE peculiarity in the colors of fowls, is, 

 that they frequently change in a very surprising man- 

 ner, from the time when the chicks cast their down to 

 the annual moult of the full-grown birds. This change, 

 although it may be regarded as a species of disease, in 

 some cases, is, no doubt, the regular process, at least 

 after the second and third moults, as the colors, then, 

 generally continue much the same. 



In the physiology of birds, there is, perhaps, nothing 

 more curious than the laws which influence the colors of 

 their feathers. It is asserted, for instance, that, " it is 

 by no means a rare occurrence among game fowls, 

 * blacks/ 'blues/ and 'reds/ to change their plumage, 

 and become spangles and whites." In the "American 

 Turf Register and Sporting Magazine," it is stated that, 

 in 1807. a case occurred of a milk-white cock, raised by 

 Mr. Phillips, of South Hampton. Virginia, the colors of 

 which changed the next spring to a red spangle. An- 

 other instance occurred with Mr Allen J. Daw, well 

 13 



