THE PEACOCK. 159 



Fecundity Necessary directions. 



his neck, draws back, and again extends it, till 

 he is caught in a noose, fixed for the purpose* 

 when the fowler draws the cord and secures it. 



The fecundity of this bird is doubtless much 

 greater in its own than in the more northern re- 

 gions. The peahen there lays twenty or thirty 

 eggs in a year, while with us the number seldom 

 exceeds four or five. The eggs are white and 

 speckled like those of the turkey, and nearly of 

 the same size. If suffered to act according to 

 the instinct of nature, the peahen deposits her 

 eggs in a secret, sequestered place, and as soon 

 as she has finished laying she begins to sit. She 

 continues sitting from twenty-seven to thirty 

 days, according to the temperature of the climate 

 and of the season ; and during this period a suffi- 

 cient quantity of food should be placed near at 

 hand, that she may not be obliged to leave her 

 eggs too long in quest of it. - Care should like- 

 wise be taken not to disturb her while sitting, for 

 being of a restless and suspicious disposition, if 

 she find that she is discovered she will leave her 

 eggs, and begin to prepare for a fresh brood, 

 which can never be equal to the first on account 

 of the approach of winter. 



The young, when hatched, should be left under 

 the mother twenty-four hours, after which they 

 may be removed beneath a coop. During the 

 first days, it has been observed that the mother 

 never returns with her brood to sleep in her nest, 

 nor even twice in the same place. As they can- 



