POULTRY. 



ganizatioii of the bird ; or, more prob- 

 ably, the previous weakness or im- 

 perfection of the chick, which occa- 

 sioned the necessity lor assistance, \ 

 also occasions its death at the mo- j 

 meat of its birth, and would take place 

 even if its disengaijeiiicnt were ef- j 

 fected without any injury. ! 



"There is a caution to be observed 

 in all cases regardin;^ the eggs when 

 the chicks are on the verge of matu- ' 

 rity : they should not he stirred when { 

 within two days of the evolvement I 

 of the chicks. If any circumstances j 

 render it absolutely necessary to do 

 so, care should be taken to place 

 them with the broad end inclining 

 upward, as the beak of the chick is | 

 then in its proper position ; and if | 

 this be reversed, the chick becomes ; 

 unable to chip the shell, and must 

 therefore die. 



" Chickens should be fed the day 

 after their birth with crumbs of bread 

 soaked in milk, or with the yolk of 

 an egg boiled hard ; and they will ; 

 quickly learn to eat curds, grits, and ; 

 barley-meal and milk. If not design- 

 ed for immediate use, they should 

 soon get raw corn, and occasionally 

 alteratives of green food, such as 

 bruised leeks, nettles, lettuces, &.c. 

 For the first week they should be con- 

 fined to the house altogether ; after 

 that time they may be let out for a 

 short time in the sun, and gradually 

 habituated to the weather. To ren- 

 der the hen, which has already dis- 

 charged her duty, still more produc- 

 tive to her owner, she is frequently 

 confined to a coop, called, in Surrey, 

 a rip, for some weeks after the chicks 

 have seen the light. Her offspring 

 during this time pass freely through 

 the prison bars, returning at her call, 

 or on occasions of alarm, to the ma- 

 ternal wings, and then hopping out 

 again, to the inexpressible misery of 

 their imprisoned mother, who is kept 

 in this slate of confinement until she 

 becomes indifferent to the chickens 

 and disposed to lay again. 



" The courage of the hen in de- 

 fence of her offspring has been a 

 common theme of admiration ; the 

 force of her maternal solicitude ef- 



fects the most surprising change in 

 her disposition and temper. Before 

 she attained her matronly character, 

 she was greedy, and always search- 

 ing for food, fond of gadding about, 

 and timid in the extreme. Now she 

 becomes generous, self-denying, and 

 intrepid ; she assumes the fiery tem- 

 per of the cock, and becomes a vira- 

 go ill defence of her helpless brood. 

 An anecdote is told by White, in his 

 ' Natural History of Selborne,' of the 

 punishment inflicted by some hens 

 upon a hawk which had, at different 

 times, killed their chickens. By some 

 means this hawk was caught, and the 

 owner gave him up to the tender mer- 

 cies of the bereaved mothers. In his 

 own words, ' Resentment suggested 

 the laws of retaliation. He clipped 

 the hawk's wings, cut off his talons, 

 and, fixing a cork on his bill, threw 

 him down among the brood hens. 

 Imagination cannot paint the scene 

 that ensued ; the expressions of fear, 

 rage, and revenge inspired were new, 

 or, at least, such as had been unno- 

 ticed before. The exasperated ma- 

 trons upbraided, they execrated, they 

 insulted, they triumphed. In a word, 

 they never desisted from bulTeting 

 their adversary till they had torn him 

 in a hundred pieces.' 



" The same writer calls attention 

 to the language of the fowl, from a 

 pleased twittering to a scream. A 

 laying pullet utters a complacent, soft 

 note ; but when she has been deliv- 

 ered of an egg, her cackle of delight 

 and importance is loud enough to ex- 

 cite the sympathetic voices of all her 

 companions ; when her chickens are 

 hatched, she has a different language, 

 which is intelligible to her little ones. 

 The crested cock has various notes ; 

 his tone and language, for such it is 

 i in effect, as he calls his favourites to 

 partake of the food which he gallant- 

 ly scrapes for them, is of a very pe- 

 culiar kind, and very diff'erent from 

 his ordinary voice, that is so familiar 

 to us. 



" Poultry are the better for high 



feeding from the very shell, and, on 



i this account, the heaviest corn is oft- 



1 ea far cheaper for them in the end 



627 



