AVES—COCK. 591 
makes for this season of patient expectation. Nature, almost exhausted by 
its own fecundity, seems to inform her of the proper time for hatching, 
which she herself testifies by a clucking note, and by discontinuing to lay, 
If left entirely to herself, the hen would seldom lay above twenty eggs in 
the same nest, without attempting to hatch them. While she sits, she 
carefully turns her eggs, and even removes them to different situations; till 
at length, in about three weeks, the young brood begin to give signs of a de- 
sire to burst their confinement. 
The formation of the embryo iscurious. During the first day’s incubation, 
and even when the egg has been under the hen a few hours, the head of the 
chicken may be seen gradualiy uniting itself to the spine of the back. On 
the second day the first process of the vertebre may be discerned, like so 
many small globules disposed on each side of the spine. The first com- 
mencement of the wings and the umbilical vessels may also be distinguish- 
ed by their dark color. The neck and breast also show themselves, and the 
head continues to increase in size. The third day, the whole is more distinct 
and enlarged; and the heart, which is suspended at the opening of the 
breast, is observed to beat ; veins and arteries may also be perceived about 
the brains, and the spinal marrow begins to extend itself through the spine. 
The eyes are considerably formed on the fourth day. The pupil and the 
crystalline and vitreous humors may be distinctly seen. The wings increase, 
the thighs appear, and the whole body begins. in some degree to be covered 
with flesh. The fifth day, the body is covered with a glutinous, or unctuous 
flesh, the heart is retained within a very fine membrane, which also extends 
itself all over the breast. The sixth day, the spinal marrow, in two divisions, 
continues to advance along the trunk; the liver, which at first was whitish, 
becomes of a darker hue; both ventricles of the heart beat, and the body of 
the chicken is covered with skin, in which may be already discerned the 
points of the feathers. The beak may be discovered on the seventh day, and 
the brain, the wings, the thighs and even the feet, have acquired a perfect 
form. The lungs appear at the end of the ninth day; their color is whitish. 
On the tenth, the muscles of the wings begin to form, the feathers continue 
to shoot out. It is not till the eleventh day that the arteries, which before 
Were separate, unite to the heart. The rest of the process consists only in 
an increase and more perfect development of the several parts, till they 
acquire sufficient vigor to break the shell. 
The strongest and best chickens generally are the first candidates for 
liberty; the weakest come behind, and some even die in the shell. When 
all are produced, the hen leads them forth to provide for themselves. Her 
affection and her pride seem then to alter her very nature, and correct her 
imperfections. No longer voracious or cowardly, she abstains from all food 
that her young can swallow, and flies boldly at every creature that she thinks 
is likely to do them mischief. 
Ten or twelve chickens are the greatest number that a good hen can rear 
