ORDER GALLINiE. 19'> 



loose, and agreed perfectly with the cocks which were appor- 

 tioned to them. 



Hens are the easiest of all birds to be managed as to 

 aliment. All nutritive substances agree with them, even 

 when buried in a dunghill. Nothing is lost. They are occu- 

 pied the whole day in scratching for, seeking, and collecting 

 provision. 



The finest and almost imperceptible seed cannot escape the 

 piercing eye of the hen. The quickest winged fly cannot 

 escape the promptitude with which she darts out her bill. 

 The worm which comes to respire at the surface of the ground, 

 has no time to wind back into his hiding place, but is imme- 

 diately seized by the head, and disinterred. 



Unluckily, when the hen has found a prey of this last 

 kind, her discretion is by no means equal to her adroitness. 

 She immediately announces it by her cries. Her companions 

 rush towards her. They find her with the worm hanging to 

 her bill, and trying to find out some private place in which 

 to devour it ; all of them immediately dart upon this prey. 

 The worm passes from bill to bill, until it is carried to a con- 

 siderable distance from the crowd by the last hen that has 

 obtained it, that she may have the liberty of devouring it at 

 her ease. 



Hens thus feeding on grains, worms, insects, and all that 

 they can find by the most pertinacious search in dunghills, 

 yards, bams, coach-houses, stables, &c,, have no need in 

 spring and winter of any supply of food, except twice a day, 

 which they should always receive in the morning at the rising 

 of the sun, and in the evening before he sets. The nature of 

 such food is too well known to render it necessary for us to 

 insist upon it here. 



The decided taste which hens show for worms has sug- 

 gested a curious mode of multiplying these last for their use, 

 A sort of paste is made of yeast of barley, bran, and horse- 



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