Book VII. 



POULTRY HOUSES. 



1083 



7427. The Genet cat (Fiverra Genettd) is a species of weasel, with an annulate tail and spotted blackish 

 tawny body. It is a native of Asia, Spain, and France ; is mild and easily tamed ; and answers all the pur. 

 poses of a cat at Constantinople and other places. 



7428. The ferret (Afustela i^jiro L., Jig. 923.) is an animal of the weasel and polecat 



923 



kind, distinguished by its red fiery eyes. 



7429. It is a native of Africa, but is tamed in Europe for 

 the purpose of catching rabbits. It procreates twice a year, 

 is gravid six weeks, and brings from six to eight young ; smells 

 very fetid. The ferret is very susceptible of cold, and must 

 be kept in a box provided with wool or otlier warm materials, 

 and may be fed with bread and milk. Its sleep is long and 

 profound, and it awakes with a voracious appetite, which is 

 most highly gratified by the blood of small and young animals. 

 Its enmity to rats and rabbits is unspeakalile, and when either 

 are, though for the first time, presented to it, it seizes and bites them with the most frenzied madness. 

 When employed to expel the rabbit from its burrows it must be muzzled, as otherwise it will suck the 

 blood of its victim and instantly fall into a profound sleep, from which it will awake only to the work of 

 destruction, committing in the warren, where it was introduced only for its services, the most dreadful 

 waste and havoc. It is possessed of high irritability, and when particularly excited is attended with an 

 odour extremely offensive. 



Chap. IX. 

 Animals of the Bird kind employed in Agriculture. 



7430. Though poultry form a very insignificant part of the live stock of a farm, yet 

 they ought not to be altogether despised. In the largest farm a few domestic fowls 

 pick up what might escape the pigs and be lost ; and on small farms and among cot- 

 tagers, the breeding and rearing of early chickens and ducks, and in some situations the 

 rearing of turkeys and the keeping of geese, are found profitable. There are few who 

 do not relish a new egg or a pancake, not to say the flesh of fowls ; and there are some 

 of these comforts which happily can be had in as great perfection in the cottage as in the 

 palace. The various kinds of domestic fowls and birds which are used in agriculture 

 may be classed as gallinaceous, or with cleft feet ; anserine, or web-footed ; and birds of 

 fancy or luxury. Before proceeding to the first division we shall offer some remarks on 

 poultry hovels. 



Sect. I. PouUry Houses and their Furniture and Utensils. 



7431. The situation of the poultry house should be dry, and exposed either to the east 

 or south-east, so as to enjoy the sun's rays in winter as soon as he appears above the 

 horizon. Though in many cases all the commoner sorts of poultry are lodged in the 

 same apartment ; yet to be able to bestow on each species its proper treatment, they ought 

 to be separated by divisions, and enter by separate doors. Apartments for aquatic fowls 

 may be made in part under those of the gallinaceous tribe, and the peacock often prefers 

 roosting on a tree, or on the roof of high buildings, when it forms an excellent watch 

 bird to the poultry-yard or farmery. 



7432. Where a complete set of poultry houses are intended, then a situation should be fixed on near or 

 close to the farmery, and with ample space around for the fowls to disperse over in the day-time, and one 

 or more ponds for the aquatic sorts. A space thirty feet by fifty feet may be made choice of for the build, 

 ings and yard (Jig. 924); the building maybe ranged along the north side, and the three other sides 



enclosed with a trellis or wire fence from six to eight feet in 

 height, and subdivided with similar fences according to the 

 number of apartments. The hen-house (<i) and turkey-house (6) 

 may have their roosts (c c) in part over the low houses for ducks 

 (rf)"jtnd geese (e), and besides these there may be other apart- 

 ments (/, g, h) for hatching or newly hatched broods, for fat. 

 tening, to serve as an hospital, or for retaining, boiling, or 

 otherwise preparing food, killing poultry, and other purposes. 

 A flue may pass through the whole in moist or very severe 

 weather ; the walls should be built hollow in the manner al. 

 ready described (7002.), which will at the same time be a saving 

 of material ; and the windows ought to have outside shutters, 

 both for excluding excessive heats and excessive colds. In 

 every apartment there ought to be a window opposite the door, in order to create a thorough draught when 

 both are opened, and also a valve in the roof to admit the escape of the hottest and lightest air. Every 

 door ought to have a small opening at bottom, for the admission of the fowls when the door is shut. The 

 elevation (fig. 925.) should be in a simple style, and there may be a pigeonry over the central building. 



