196 CLASS AVES. 



dung. It is put into a proper vessel. At the end of three 

 days, if the weather be warm, it will be filled with a multi- 

 tude of worms, which will serve as food for the hens. 



This may be done upon a still larger scale. In a part of 

 the poultry-yard, sufficiently elevated to permit the running 

 down of waters, four walls are constructed, each two feet in 

 length, and four in height, which form a square foss. In 

 this foss are put, successively, rye straw, cut up, fresh horse- 

 dung, light earth, moistened with the blood of oxen or other 

 animals, a mixture of the squeezed substance of grapes, of 

 oats, and bran. On this last bed are spread the intestines of 

 animals, cut in pieces ; then recommencing with the bed of 

 rye-straw as at first, the same order is followed until the foss 

 is filled. Then it is covered with thorny branches, kept 

 down by large stones, to prevent the attacks of the fowl. 



This mixture soon becomes, as it were, converted into a 

 heap of worms, which are preserved for that season in which 

 the earth, hardened by frost, produces no more, and they are 

 distributed in small portions to the fowl every morning. 

 This method is pursued in France. 



Hens, though very easily frightened by the smallest strange 

 animal that approaches them, soon become accustomed to all 

 the people of the farm which they inhabit. They will come 

 and eat with the other domestic animals in their racks and 

 troughs ; they would even place themselves at table with their 

 masters, if permitted. They are constant to the house from 

 which they derive their support, and very seldom, if ever, 

 remove to any great distance from it ; so that when a hen is 

 seen by a traveller who is looking for a habitation, he may 

 rest assured that there is one at no great distance. 



With respect to the management of hens in their habita- 

 tions, food, incubation, diseases, &c., we shall enter into no 

 details, as this constitutes a branch of rural economy, rather 

 than of natural history, and is, moreover, sufficiently known 



