COCK, HEN, AND CHICKENS. 177 



thick woollen canopy. I should think a much better sub- 

 stitute might 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 capons 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 presently 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 animal 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 the chickens may be pleasant to him in 

 misery, and invite him to succor the distressed. He from 

 that time brings up a brood of chickens like a hen, clutch- 

 ing them, feeding them, clucking, and performing all the 

 functions of the tenderest parent. A capon once accus- 

 tomed 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 tender- 

 ness 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 

 lo themselves, is not yet well ascertained by any historian. 

 As they are kept only for profit, and in a few years be- 

 come unfit for generation, there are few that, from mere mo- 

 tives of curiosity, will make the tedlbus experiment of main- 

 taining 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*. 



