48 REARING. ARTIFICIAL MOTHER. 



Here commenced the grand difficulty. The nurse 

 chickens soon became weary of their basket, feeling 

 their natural desire of almost perpetual action, and 

 the want of a mother to lead and brood them. 

 A capon is best calculated for this business, as from 

 size being capable of covering such a number : but 

 much discipline is required to bring the capon to this 

 habit. I have never made trial of the capon for this 

 employ, but am assured that the discipline described 

 by Buffon, namely, plucking the feathers from the 

 breast, and repeatedly irritating the skin with net- 

 tles, in order that the pain may impel the bird to 

 take chickens to the part by way of alleviation, is 

 equally futile and unnecessary as it is barbarous ; 

 and, indeed, more probable to enrage him, and en- 

 danger the brood. It is said, feeding the chicks a 

 few times with the capon, attaches it to them; that 

 some capons will brood them almost immediately, 

 others can never be induced to it by any means. In 

 the mean time, an ARTIFICIAL MOTHER cannot be 

 dispensed with, under which the chickens may brood 

 and shelter. 



We made choice of a BOX, the sides of which we 

 covered with lamb's skin dressed with the wool on, 

 the lid being covered with the same, placed and con- 

 fined sloping within the box, so that one extremity 

 reached nearly to the bottom, the other gradually 

 ascending; thus the smallest chicks, by penetrat- 

 ing to the farther end, could nestle their heads and 

 shoulders in the wool, and those which were taller* 

 would find the same convenience in the ascending 

 part of the lid. Such is their mode of nestling under 



