262 THE DOMESTIC FOWI* 



and forty-fourth hour, two ventricles are visible, and two drops of 

 blood instead of the single one which was seen before. On the sev 

 enth day, the brain begins to have some consistence. At the hundred 

 and nintieth hour of incubation, the bill opens, and the flesh appears 

 in the breast; in four hours more, the breast-bone is seen; and in six 

 hours after this, the ribs appear to be forming from the back, and the 

 bill is very visible, as well as the gall-bladder. The bill becomes 

 fp-een at the end of two hundred and thirty-six hours; and if the 

 chicken be taken out of its coverings, it evidently moves itself. The 

 fathers begin to shoot out towards the two hundred and fort e h 

 hour, and the skull becomes grislty. At the two hundred and sixty- 

 fourth hour, the eyes appear. At the two hundred and eighty-eighth, 

 the ribs are perfect. At the three hundred and thirty-first, the spleen 

 draws near the stomach, and the lungs to the chest. At the end of 

 three hundred and fifty-five hours, the bill frequently opens and shuts; 

 and at the end of the eighteenth day, the first cry of the chicken i.s 

 heard. It afterwards gets more strength, and grows continually, till 

 at length it is enabled to set itself free from its confinement. 



In the whole of this process, we must remark that every part ap 

 pears exactly at its proper time: if, for example, the liver is formed on 

 the fifth day, it is founded on the preceding situation of the chicken, 

 and on the changes that were to follow. No part of the body could 

 possibly appear either sooner or later, without the whole embryo 

 suffering; and each of the limbs becomes visible at the fit moment 

 This ordination, so wise and so invariable, is manifestly the work of 

 a Supreme Being: but we must still more sensibly acknowledge hi? 

 creative powers when, we consider the manner in which the chicken 

 is formed out of the Darts which compose the egg. How astonishing 

 must it appear to an observing mind, that in this substance there 

 should be, at all, the vital principle of an animated being! That all 

 the parts of an animal's body should be concealed in it, and require 

 nothing but heat to unfold and quicken them ! That the whole for- 

 mation of the chicken should be so constant and regular I That, 

 exactly at the same time, the same changes should take place in the 

 generality of eggs! That the chicken, the moment it is hatched, 

 should be heavier than the egg was before! But even these are not 

 all the wonders in the formation of a bird from the egg: (for this 

 instance will serve to illustrate the whole of the feathered tribes : ) 

 there are others, altogether hidden from our observation ; and of 

 which from our very limited faculties, we must ever remain ignorant. 



I cannot take leave of this animal, without a few observations ou 

 the savage diversion of cock-fighting; which (to the disgrace of a 

 Christian nation) is encouraged, not merely by the lowest and mean- 

 est, but by some persons even in the highest ranks of society. The 

 Sh rove-Tuesday massacre of throwing at these unfortunate animals is, 

 indeed, almost discontinued: but the cock-pit yet remains a reproach to 

 the character of Englishmen. The refinements which in England 

 have taken place in the pitting of these courageous birds against each 

 other would strike almost the rudest of the savage tribes of mankind 

 with horror. The Battle-royal and the Welsh- main would scarcel" 



