THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



261 



Egypt. These should have their heat kept as nearly equal as possible 

 and the eggs should be frequently removed from the sides into thj 

 middle, in order that each may receive an equal portion. After the 

 eggs are hatched, the offspring should be put into a kind of low boxes 

 without bottoms, and lined with fur ; the warmth of which supplies 

 the place of a hen, and in which the chickens can at any time take 

 shelter. These should be kept in a warm room till the chickens 

 acquire some strength ; the chickens then may, with safety, be ex- 

 posed to the open air, in a court-yard. 



As to the mode in which the young brood are fed: a whole day 

 generally elapses after they are hatched, before they take any food at 

 all ; a few crumbs of bread are given for the subsequent day or two, 

 after which time they begin to pick up insects and grain for them- 

 selves. But in order to save the trouble of attending them, capons 

 may be taught to watch them in the same manner as hens. M. do 

 Reaumur says, that he has seen more than two thousand chickens j 

 once, all lea about and defended by only three or four capons. It ui 

 asserted, that even cocks may be taught to perform this office. 



The progress of the incubation of the chicken in the natural wa] ', 

 is a subject too curious, and 

 too interesting, to be passed 

 over without notice. The hen 

 has scarcely sat on the egg 

 twelve hours, before some 

 lineaments of the head and 

 body of the chicken appear. 

 The heart may be seen to 

 beat at the end of the second 

 day; it has at that time some- 

 what the form of a Horse- 

 shoe, but no blood yet ap- 

 pears. At the end of two 

 days, two vesicles of blood 

 are to be distinguished, the 

 pulsation of which is very 

 visible: one of these is the 

 left ventricle, and the other 



the root of the great artery. COCBU 



At the fiftieth hour, one auri- 

 cle of the heart appears, resembling a noose folded down upon 

 itself. The beating of the heart is first observed in the auricle, and 

 afterwards in the ventricle. At the end of seventy hours, the wings 

 are distinguishable; and on the head two bubbles are seen for the 

 brain, one for the bill, and two others for the fore and hind part of tlu 

 head. Towards the end of the fourth day, the two auricles, already 

 visible, draw nearer to the heart than before. The liver appears 

 towards the fifth day. At the end of a hundred and thirty-one hours, 

 the first voluntary motion is observed. At the end of seven hours 

 more, the lungs and stomach become visible; and four hours aftei 

 this, the intestines, the loins, and the upper jaw At the hundred 



