32 NESTS EGGS BARREN. 



further, a new cock may prove dull and inactive 

 from the change, however good in nature. This 

 frequently hapj>ens with cocks of the superior breeds, 

 purchased from the London dealers, in whose coops 

 they have been kept in such a high state of tempera- 

 ture, that they are unable to endure the o|>en air 

 of the country, unless in the summer season. Such 

 being removed in autumn, winter, or early spring, 

 if immediately turned abroad with hens, are liable 

 to become aguitM, torpid, and totally useless, per- 

 haps, in the end, turning roopy or glandered. The 

 only method <>f safety in this case, is to keep such 

 a cock in the house, upon the best and most nour- 

 ishing food, turning the hens to him several times 

 in the day. and permitting him to he abroad an hour 

 or so, the weather being fine, until in a few weeks 

 he shall be accustomed to the air. 



In making the NKVTS, short and soft straw is to 

 IK? preferred, because the straw being long, the hen, 

 on leaving her nest, will be liable to draw it out with 

 her claws, and with it the egg. The hen, it is as- 

 certained, will breed and lay eggs without the com- 

 pany of a cock ; of course, such eggs are barren. 

 I confined a hen with a pheasant cock, which was 

 never observed to attend ; she laid twenty-nine eggs, 

 all which proved barren. It may be said that she 

 had previously associated with a cock, but that the 

 attentions of one were also subsequently necessary 

 to rentier the eggs perfect and prolific ; such fact, 

 nevertheless, does not negative the other, of a hen's 

 breeding eggs entirely independent of the male, as 

 is confirmed by the circumstance of parrots and 



