CHAPTER IV. 

 BATCHING OUT AND INCUBATORS. 



How green are you and fresh in this old world. 



King John, Act III., Scene 4. 

 Th appointed time 



With pious toil fulfill'd, the callow young, 

 Warmed and expanded into perfect life, 

 Their little bondage break, and come to light ; 

 A helpless family, demanding food 

 With constant clamour. 



THOMSON (Spring, line 666). 



HATCHING OUT. 



JHIS most important epoch will occur about 

 the twenty-fourth day, and ere this, all 

 the paraphernalia for the reception of the 

 youthful pheasants coops, appliances, 

 foods, &c., which will all be described in due course 

 should be ready prepared, and the field in which old 

 hens are to complete the latter and most important 

 portion of their duties should have been long ago 

 selected, duly cleared of vermin, and eaten down by 

 sheep. But of all this more anon. At present we 

 have to deal with our tender charges as they chip, 

 one by one, the sturdy eggshell that has protected 

 them so long, and enter upon that brief career, which, 

 from the first moment when the incubator may have 

 been overheated until the supreme hour has arrived, 



