BIRDS' NESTS, 27 



CHAPTER III. 



NEXT morning, the eggs on the breakfast- 

 table reminded Mr. Miller of Henry's question, 

 whether hens were not birds ? so he lost no 

 time in explaining to him how there was no 

 cruelty in taking hens' eggs. 



" Fowls," he said, " are domestic animals, 

 that is, they have been tamed by man, and are 

 kept by him for his advantage. From having 

 been long in this state, they have lost many of 

 the habits which they had while in a state of 

 nature, and among them that of making nests. 

 They will lay, you know, in a basket or on a 

 heap of straw, or in a mere hole which they 

 have scratched in the ground. But still their 

 instinct teaches them to lay the whole of a set 

 in one place. If an egg, or a piece of chalk 

 cut into the shape of an egg, be placed in a 

 convenient corner of the poultry-house, it is 



