DELIVERY OF ITSELF HATCHING. 39 



fectly easy to the chicken : for in whatever position 

 the egg may be, the head of the chicken is sup- 

 ported either by the body or by the wing, or by 

 both united : in fine, the force of the blows against 

 the shell by the beak, is powerful in proportion to 

 the bulk of the head. The mother's affection for 

 her brood is always observed to be intensely in- 

 creased, when she first hears the voice of the chicks 

 through the shells, and the strokes of their little 

 bills against them. 



All chickens do not dispatch the important task 

 in equal time. Some are able to disencumber them- 

 selves of the shell, in the course of an hour from 

 the commencement of the operation ; others take 

 two or three hours ; and generally it may be looked 

 upon as half a day's work : in case of natural or 

 accidental debility, the period may be extended to 

 twenty- four, or even forty-eight hours, in which 

 case, however, there is seldom much success in the 

 hatching. Here skilful assistance is wanted from 

 t'he attendant, which very few possess. Reaumur, 

 the greater part of whose observations, such, I 

 mean, as I have found leisure to attend to, appear 

 to me correct, says the women of most countries in 

 his time (1747) were in the habit of dipping the 

 eggs in warm water, and suffering them to remain 

 in it a short time, on the day of hatching, from the 

 presumption of rendering the shell more tender and 

 easy to be penetrated by the bills of the chickens. 

 This, however, is a useless, perhaps injurious la- 

 bour, since the shell of a boiled egg does not prove 

 sensibly less hard ; and granting it did, would soon 



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