444 BIRDS AND BEES. CHAP. XX. 



in some cold soils, water contributed to promote vegeta- 

 tion, rather than to impede it, as was generally believed ; 

 for the water, being exposed to the sun and atmosphere, 

 became specifically warmer than the earth it covered, 

 and when it afterwards irrigated the fields, it commu- 

 nicated this additional heat to the soil which it per- 

 meated. 



All his early affection for birds and animals revived. 

 He had favourite dogs, and cows, and horses ; and again 

 he began to keep rabbits, and to pride himself on the 

 beauty of his breed. There was not a bird's nest upon 

 the grounds that he did not know of ; and from day to 

 day he went round watching the progress which the 

 birds made with their building, carefully guarding 

 them from injury. No one was more minutely ac- 

 quainted with the habits of British birds, the result of 

 a long, loving, and close observation of nature. 



At Tapton he remembered the failure of his early 

 experiment in hatching birds' eggs by heat, and he now 

 performed it successfully, being able to secure a proper 

 apparatus for maintaining a uniform temperature. He 

 was also curious about the breeding and fattening of 

 fowls ; and when his friend Edward Pease of Darling- 

 ton visited him at Tapton, he explained a method which 

 he had invented for fattening chickens in half the usual 

 time. The chickens were shut up in boxes, which were 

 so made as to exclude the light. Dividing the day into 

 two or three periods, the birds were shut up at the end 

 of each after a heavy feed, and went to sleep. The plan 

 proved very successful, and Mr. Stephenson jocularly 

 said that if he were to devote himself to chickens he 

 could soon make a little fortune. 



Mrs. Stephenson tried to keep bees, but found they 

 would not thrive at Tapton. Many hives perished, 

 and there was no case of success. The cause of failure 

 was a puzzle to the engineer ; but one day his acute 

 powers of observation enabled him to unravel it. At 



