44 THE NASCENT CHICK. 



SECTION VI. 



Hatching of the Brood. 



THIS must be watched on the expiration of the term, 

 in which the state of the weather, warm or cold, may 

 make some hours difference. Nature, as Reaumur 

 long since observed, has committed to the chicken 

 itself the task of breaking its way through the shell, 

 the hen being totally uninstructed and unqualified 

 on that point ; for, indeed, any forcible strokes with 

 her beak might have the effect of wounding the 

 chicken, whilst it broke the shell. The only use of 

 her bill, generally, in this case, is to turn, or remove 

 the eggs, defend them, or cast out the broken shells. 

 The chicken in perfect health and unimpeded, sud- 

 denly, at Nature's impulse, performs the part of break- 

 ing its prison with wonderful strength and energy, 

 indicative of future activity, considering the quiescent 

 state, rolled up like a ball, in which it has laid from 

 the time of its form being complete. 



ITS FORM AND POSITION IN THE SHELL. The neck 



curves or slopes toward the belly, on about the mid- 

 dle of which the head is placed ; the bill under the 

 right wing, like a bird asleep ; the feet are gathered 

 up beneath the belly, like those of fowls trussed for 

 the spit ; the claws reversed, almost touch the head 

 from their convexity. The fore-part of the chicken 

 is generally placed towards the biggest end of the egg, 

 adapted by nature to that purpose : the whole body is 



